I did not ask about radio formats. I asked about musical genres. This thread is about looking for "soft rock" stations, not "adult contemporary" stations. If you want to find a station that plays "soft rock", then it helps to have some sort of an idea of what is and what is not "soft rock". The simple truth is, if you cannot define what something is, you can't really discuss it effectively.
But the absolute worst definition of all, being totally useless, is the circular logic that Such-and-such a format includes songs played on such-and-such a format station, while such-and-such a format station is any station that play's such-and-such a genre of songs. It's circular pretzel logic.
Genre information from Wikipedia:
Soft rock (also referred to as mellow rock, light rock, or easy rock) is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock and roll (often combined with elements from folk rock and singer-songwriter pop) to compose a softer, more toned-down sound for listening, often at work or when driving. Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life and relationships.
The genre tends to make heavy use of acoustic guitars, pianos, synthesizers and sometimes saxophones. The electric guitars in soft rock are normally faint and high-pitched.
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a style of music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, soul, rhythm and blues, and rock influence. Adult contemporary is rather a continuation of the easy listening and soft rock style that became popular in the 1960s and 1970s with some adjustments that reflect the evolution of pop/rock music.
Adult contemporary tends to have lush, soothing and highly polished qualities where emphasis on melody and harmonies is accentuated. It is usually melodic enough to get a listener’s attention, and is inoffensive and pleasurable enough to work well as background music. Like most of pop music, its songs tend to be written in a basic format (often the verse-chorus structure), as well as the common employment of repeated choruses.
Adult contemporary is heavy on romantic ballads which mostly use acoustic instruments (though bass guitar is usually used) such as acoustic guitars, pianos, saxophones, and sometimes an orchestral set. The electric guitars are normally faint and high-pitched. However, recent adult contemporary music may usually feature synthesizers (and other electronics, such as drum machines).
AC radio may play mainstream music, but they will exclude “hip hop”, “heavy metal”, youth-oriented “hard rock”, “teen pop” music, and rhythmic “dance tracks”, as they are less popular amongst the target demographic of these radio stations, which is intended for an adult audience. Radio stations playing this format will often target the 18–54 age group, also the demographic that has received the most attention from advertisers since the 1960s.
Over the years, AC has spawned numerous sub-genres: “hot AC”, “soft AC” (also known as “lite AC”), “urban AC”, “rhythmic AC”, and “Christian AC” (i.e., a softer type of Contemporary Christian music). Some radio stations play only “hot AC”, “soft AC”, or only one of the variety of sub-genres. Therefore, it is not usually considered a specific genre of music; it is merely an assemblage of selected tracks from musicians of many different genres.
