One other aspect of AC as a format is it's drawn on songs from other genres to create their mix. In the 80s, AC stations would play country songs by Anne Murray or Kenny Rogers. In the 90s, they played Martina McBride and Shania Twain. Recently, they've drawn on Keith Urban, Taylor Swift, and Faith Hill. There's been a consistency in the kinds of music that makes up Adult Contemporary. But the specific songs have changed.
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Why did AC stop being soft?
- Thread starter nd2023
- Start date
M
Music Lover
Guest
With life getting more hectic, traffic getting crazier, our jobs being more demanding, I just find it hard to believe that this generation wants no soft music at all. There are times I like to rock out but working in an office is not one of those times.
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michael hagerty
Walk of Fame Participant
Life is always getting more hectic, traffic always getting crazier, and jobs always more demanding. Boomers didn't reach back to Perry Como when they hit 40 and this generation won't reach back to Neil Diamond.
This generation of women in particular doesn't want to be thought of as "old". 40 isn't June Cleaver....it's Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks and Kristen Wiig.
M
Music Lover
Guest
I'm in my late 30's. Never have really cared too much for CHR. It saddens me that the only option for listening to soft music is with CDs and the Internet. If a communications company is willing to try some kind of "modern soft" station, I'd love to listen to it.
There are a lot of them out there...probably not in the biggest cities.
M
Music Lover
Guest
My neck of the woods is rural, Southern, and conservative with the dominant formats being country and Christian.
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We do have real ones in Phoenix, San Diego, Miami and Tampa.
M
Music Lover
Guest
To add to what I said earlier, maybe I wasn't typical of your 90's teen. While other kids were into performers like Britney Spears or Nirvana or into rap, my music collection consisted of performers such as Celine Dion, Amy Grant, Vanessa Williams, Whitney Houston, Faith Hill.
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michael hagerty
Walk of Fame Participant
You were what I call (with no malice) "a weird kid". I was one myself. I bought my first two record albums in early 1968. Beatles? Rolling Stones? Cream? The Doors?
Nope. Frank Sinatra/Antonio Carlos Jobim and Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66.
But that's not what most 11-year olds were buying and you couldn't use my tastes to program a radio station (which I found out the hard way a few years later).
A
Avid Listener
Guest
My friend, if you want to hear the music you want to hear in that environment, you ain't gonna hear it on local broadcast radio. Sorry, but that's just the sad and sorry truth of it.
That is not a safe assumption.
We already have several major markets like San Diego and Miami showing that a well done softer and more traditional AC can do well. With fine tuning, both Miami and San Diego have started doing very well in 25-54... so much so that now we have a similar format in Phoenix.
As "regular" AC stations have become quite pop and contemporary, a window has opened for a 35-54 station that is a bit more low key and which features a deeper gold library and fewer currents.
I expect that the success of WFEZ in Miami followed by the very recent ascent to the top by KIFM in San Diego will invite similar formats in many markets, from Macon to Modesto.
What market is that?
M
Music Lover
Guest
Strongest signal I can get is Danville, VA. Larger markets I used to be able to pick up clearly (Roanoke, VA and Greensboro, NC) have gotten too static-y over time.
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M
Music Lover
Guest
My exposure to oldies was partially through records collections of my parents and other older relatives and partially through Oldies stations and AC stations.
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M
Music Lover
Guest
The Easy Hits stream that I mentioned about that has started up is classified as Soft Pop. http://www.softrockradio.net/
The station advertises that they play classic soft hits spanning from primarily the 1960s through the 1990s, although I did hear "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera while I was listening this morning, a song which was released in 2002.
The station advertises that they play classic soft hits spanning from primarily the 1960s through the 1990s, although I did hear "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera while I was listening this morning, a song which was released in 2002.
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A
Avid Listener
Guest
What part of "rural, Southern, and conservative with the dominant formats being country and Christian" do you not understand?
What the hell does Miami, San Diego, and Phoenix have to do with "rural, Southern, and conservative"?
vchimpanzee
Walk of Fame Participant
What's wrong with Neil Diamond? People today like Neil Diamond.
There was never a time when I didn't like Neil Diamond, and once I discovered Perry Como's Christmas specials I really like him. I'm not sure when I first heard "It's Impossible". Format 41 played that one back in the 80s. I later discovered I liked a lot of his stuff. America's Best Music played "Dream On" this morning. Which sounded really out of place with "Diamond Girl" by Seals and Crofts.
vchimpanzee
Walk of Fame Participant
In Charlotte, WLVV "Love 97" did this in 1981, so KOST may not have been the first. WLVV started out as a version of the beautiful music format which included more vocals, but evolved into what we were calling soft rock. WEZC stopped playing beautiful music about a year later and started playing soft rock, which was very much like WLVV.
vchimpanzee
Walk of Fame Participant
I'd like to make a correction here.
Maybe they did sound like this in the 80s. I don't think the softest music came back even when they had to become the soft AC in 1994 with the demise of B-100. But 93 Mix was soft (except for "Footloose" and a couple of other songs) and Joy 100 even softer, even playing Sinatra and Perry Como. WMAG ended up playing some of the harder stuff that distinguished AC from soft AC. I even remember hearing "My Sharona" in the early 90s. 93 Mix had gone oldies and Joy 100, as B-100, had more of an AC sound. Then B-100 went rock.
michael hagerty
Walk of Fame Participant
Nothing's wrong with Neil Diamond. But he's of a different generation. His last record to get significant CHR play was "Heartlight". That was 32 years ago. It's been 25 years since he cracked the Top 10 of the Adult Contemporary charts. He simply isn't a factor for most 40-year-old women today.
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