• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Rap becoming acceptable on AC?

I'm not too surprised. Over the past couple years, "Dynamite", "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love", "Without You", "I Gotta Feeling", and "Let's Get it Started" had crossed edgy R&B and hip-hop contents into the AC chart.
 
joe Cocker past the point on AC a long time ago. it now has a place on MOR stations.
 
AC is a new term for MOR or AC is actually another term for MOR. AC is a term coined for MOR. Joe Cocker was MOR 30 years ago. MOR audience are audience aged 35-54. 30 years have passed. Those audience are 65-84 now, so Joe Cocker isn't MOR anymore. Fun, Carly Rae Jepsen, Imagine Dragons, American Authors, Katy Perry, and Rihanna are pretty much MOR now.
 
andrewduong77 said:
AC is a new term for MOR or AC is actually another term for MOR. AC is a term coined for MOR. Joe Cocker was MOR 30 years ago. MOR audience are audience aged 35-54. 30 years have passed. Those audience are 65-84 now, so Joe Cocker isn't MOR anymore. Fun, Carly Rae Jepsen, Imagine Dragons, American Authors, Katy Perry, and Rihanna are pretty much MOR now.
Click to expand...
It was the middle of the road, between the Classics and Rock n Roll. The format doesn't exist anymore. It was replaced by Adult Contemporary over 40 years ago, as a way to reach contemporary adults 25-44.
 
andrewduong77 said:
AC is a new term for MOR or AC is actually another term for MOR. AC is a term coined for MOR. Joe Cocker was MOR 30 years ago. MOR audience are audience aged 35-54. 30 years have passed. Those audience are 65-84 now, so Joe Cocker isn't MOR anymore. Fun, Carly Rae Jepsen, Imagine Dragons, American Authors, Katy Perry, and Rihanna are pretty much MOR now.
Click to expand...

Huh? MOR or (Soft AC) is still around

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America's_Best_Music


Katy Perry MOR ?
 
Groove1670 said:
Huh? MOR or (Soft AC) is still around

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America's_Best_Music


Katy Perry MOR ?
Click to expand...
MOR was the middle ground between Mantovani and Elvis/The Beatles. When that middle ground ceased to exist, so did MOR. AC has never been MOR. If you could get Tony Bennett and Doris Day to record a bunch of new songs and get a radio station to air them as a single format, you might have what could be described as MOR but you'd also need a lot more singers and some instrumentals in the mix and those are the only two I can think of who are still alive! I take it back. Steve Lawrence is still alive but without Eydie Gorme', it just wouldn't be the same.
 
semoochie said:
It was the middle of the road, between the Classics and Rock n Roll. The format doesn't exist anymore. It was replaced by Adult Contemporary over 40 years ago, as a way to reach contemporary adults 25-44.
Click to expand...
Yes, that is what I was trying to say. Middle of the road is a term that describes a radio stations format intended to target adult listeners 25-44, 25-54, 35-54, 35-44, somewhere around there. It plays a mixture of acceptable top 40 music along with easy listening music. In other words, middle of the road is music that is in the middle of easy listening music and top 40 music. The term was used back in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. But over the 1980s the term adult contemporary replaced the term middle of the road. Therefore adult contemporary pretty much means the same thing as middle of the road. Its just that AC music back in the late 1980s and early 1990s are different from AC music today.

If I were to look back at the late 1980s and early 1990s, everything including Joe Cocker, Bill Medley, Jennifer Warnes, James Taylor, Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac, Ambrosia, Paul Davis, Gloria Estefan, Elton John, Billy Joel, Cutting Crew, Starship, Crowded House, Chicago, Heart, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and Whitney Houston were considered MOR music which is the same as AC music. If I were too look at the late 2000s and early 2010s, everything including Matchbox Twenty, Avril Lavigne, Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Elton John, Chicago, Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Cyndi Lauper, Cutting Crew, Starship, Crowded House, Fun, Black Eyed Peas, Taio Cruz, Capital Cities, Adele, Pink, and Train is considered AC which is the same as MOR (although most of the 70s songs by Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Elton John, Chicago, and Fleetwood Mac are no longer considered AC considering that the majority of ACs had dropped 1970s music and focused on 1980-present music over the course of the past three years.)

I can see what you guys mean though. Middle of the road doesn't mean exactly the same thing as adult contemporary, middle of the road somewhat means an edgier version of easy listening/beautiful music, a softer version of adult contemporary while adult contemporary are much more contemporary/mainstream than middle of the road, a softer version of contemporary hit radio. I can see a lot of people looked at the term "middle of the road" in two different ways nowadays.

Middle of the road - Traditional usage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_of_the_road_(music)#Traditional_usage
Wikipedia said:
The middle of the road music category has traditionally included these genres:

  • Easy listening
  • Traditional pop music of the pre-rock & roll era; and, later, revivalist recordings of the style
  • Orchestral ballads
  • Show tunes
  • Smooth jazz melodies
  • Soft rock songs and melodies

As an AM radio format in North America, MOR's heyday was the 1960s and the 1970s. The 50,000-watt AM radio stations WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio, WJR in Detroit, Michigan, WNEW in New York City, New York, WCCO in Minneapolis, Minnesota, KMPC in Los Angeles, California, KIRO and KOMO in Seattle, Washington, and Canadian stations CFRB in Toronto, Ontario and CKNW in Vancouver, British Columbia, were known as "full-service MOR" stations with scheduled programming other than the MOR music. In that time, as the listener demographic groups aged, and popular music emigrated to FM radio, MOR stations competed with adult contemporary FM stations and AM stations broadcasting the Music of Your Life and adult standards formats, most eliminated music and transmitted only news and talk programs; some continued to play MOR music until the early 1990s. Many of the styles and genres of music that had traditionally been heard on MOR formatted stations are currently heard on adult standards formatted stations.
Click to expand...

Middle of the road - Contemporary usage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_of_the_road_(music)#Contemporary_usage
Wikipedia said:
In recent years, the term "middle of the road" has been used pejoratively by genre-specific music aficionados to describe musicians who avoid "edgy" (innovative) material, and who calibrate their musical appeal to commercial, popular musical taste. Artists such as Westlife (pop) and Train (rock) are considered middle-of-the-road musicians.

Moreover, MOR has been used to pejoratively describe a musical band's creative and commercial progress from the innovative path to the tried-and-true-pop-catalogue path. For example, Pitchfork Media's review of Duran Duran's Rio said: "The band peppered the 80s with a number of hot singles (most of which can be found on the unstoppable side A of Rio) before departing for MOR country."
Click to expand...
 
Not exactly. Like everything else the demographic timeline moves up. Celine Dion, Michael Bolton, have taken over the Soft AC (or if you want to call it) MOR reigns. Most mainstream AC's have dropped the artists I listed (and in turn, have joined many stations that play what you classify as traditional MOR). Train is still charting on Adult Top 40 (Current single #10 on the BDS charts this week), and some CHR's (not many)are spinning it. Westlife never really charted in the US.

Duran Duran departing for MOR country? Part of the entry needs to be flagged (on wiklpedia) for alleged misinformation.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
andrewduong77 said:
Yes, that is what I was trying to say. Middle of the road is a term that describes a radio stations format intended to target adult listeners 25-44, 25-54, 35-54, 35-44, somewhere around there. It plays a mixture of acceptable top 40 music along with easy listening music. In other words, middle of the road is music that is in the middle of easy listening music and top 40 music. The term was used back in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. But over the 1980s the term adult contemporary replaced the term middle of the road. Therefore adult contemporary pretty much means the same thing as middle of the road. Its just that AC music back in the late 1980s and early 1990s are different from AC music today.

If I were to look back at the late 1980s and early 1990s, everything including Joe Cocker, Bill Medley, Jennifer Warnes, James Taylor, Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac, Ambrosia, Paul Davis, Gloria Estefan, Elton John, Billy Joel, Cutting Crew, Starship, Crowded House, Chicago, Heart, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and Whitney Houston were considered MOR music which is the same as AC music. If I were too look at the late 2000s and early 2010s, everything including Matchbox Twenty, Avril Lavigne, Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Elton John, Chicago, Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Cyndi Lauper, Cutting Crew, Starship, Crowded House, Fun, Black Eyed Peas, Taio Cruz, Capital Cities, Adele, Pink, and Train is considered AC which is the same as MOR (although most of the 70s songs by Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Elton John, Chicago, and Fleetwood Mac are no longer considered AC considering that the majority of ACs had dropped 1970s music and focused on 1980-present music over the course of the past three years.)

I can see what you guys mean though. Middle of the road doesn't mean exactly the same thing as adult contemporary, middle of the road somewhat means an edgier version of easy listening/beautiful music, a softer version of adult contemporary while adult contemporary are much more contemporary/mainstream than middle of the road, a softer version of contemporary hit radio. I can see a lot of people looked at the term "middle of the road" in two different ways nowadays.

Middle of the road - Traditional usage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_of_the_road_(music)#Traditional_usage


Middle of the road - Contemporary usage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_of_the_road_(music)#Contemporary_usage
Click to expand...
Basically, I disagree with everything you say including what used to constitute AC music 20-30 years ago. MOR was a specific format for a time that doesn't exist anymore. Just because you want to call a refrigerator a buggy whip, doesn't make it so!
 
I remember when AC stations were an escape from hip hop, rap and hard rock. KOST-FM in L.A. and KODA-FM in Houston are 2 examples of stations that went from Soft AC to what it is now . :/ These changes happened after 2010 from what I've noticed.
 
Yes! Soft Rock used to be Soft Rock on many major-market stations, now it's a "Lite KISS-FM". Disgusting. I congratulate the Phoenix market for adding 95.1 the Oasis, a REAL Soft AC! We need more - in many more markets. Enough with the "trying to be CHR-AC".

-crainbebo
 
vchimpanzee said:
He has, most of them duets. She has recorded a few.
Click to expand...
As much as I hate to continue with this, I'm a glutton for punishment but please be kind; it's my birthday. When I say new songs, I mean songs that were recently written and haven't been heard by anyone else yet. While it is not absolutely necessary for every song to be brand new, it must be the basis of the format. The next thing you have to do is be in a time period where this music is considered trendy by adult standards(not the format). Good luck with that.
 
With so many pop songs having a rap section in the middle, it seems to me inevitable as newer music is added to the mix. And actually, it's not all that new; what about Blondie's "Rapture," etc?
 
If Delilah plays any rap, then that means it's acceptable on AC.
 
Replying to an earlier post, I'm 28 years old and personally if I never hear Blurred Lines again it will be too soon. I like the beat, but the lyrics are horrible. I was shocked when I heard it on our AC station. Just...no.
 
Charlotte's 107.9 the Link is not clearly a Hot AC because they play a lot of softer 70s and 80s music. Not soft, but not what you would expect on Hot AC. Some people say it's not Hot AC because they don't focus enough on new music. And yet last night, even though it followed "Always Something There to Remind Me", which is kind of in the middle, I heard Eminem.
 
I wish I had listened to the lyrics but Star 92.1 in Myrtle Beach played rap. At times when I heard the station it sounded AC, and I mean the way AC used to sound. And at other times it sounded CHR. Other than the music, the sound effects and station IDs definitely make the station sound like a CHR.
 
I heard rap in Sears yesterday. Now it may be true that the background "music" was not AC like it is in some of the other stores. And I have found that Sears sometimes has lots of different styles of music in a short period of time. Unlike "Jack" stations, sears really DID play "everything".
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom