It was Top 40, wasn’t it? The Pop Chart, IIRC. One and the same, wasn’t it? …for the longest time, it seems, too! Now, perhaps since all the baby-boomers have either gone deaf or (less likely) matured, we’ve invented Adult Contempory for them? (And, IMHO, we might as well consider it as today’s muzac!) And they have the nerve to monolpolize Casey Casom (sp?)
When and how did this all get started? I WAG it started in the dark of night as a conspiracy by the record labels to sell out to anyone who claimed they knew how to play a chord and write two lines that rhyme! (Oops! Sorry if my cynical side’s spleen is leaking out here.) - Jinx
It’s the next guys (Us) that are the “adults” marketed to by Adult Contemporary.
It’s rock that isn’t thrash, pop that isn’t sung by jail bait, R&B-ish type stuff without the rap, and female country superstars singing non-country songs.
Some pretty good stuff and still conservative enough to be played in an office.
But, sometimes, ya just gotta step in a puddle of mud, you know?
Adult Contemporary started in the mid 70’s as more of a defining border for “rock and roll”. AC is the more mellow, melodic rock, the more “pop”. It began about the same time program directors started getting anal about demographics. They wanted to program stations for the audience who liked The Beach Boys and The Mamas and Papas as opposed to those who liked Led Zep and Jimi Hendrix. And now the program directors are so far anal that AC is broken down even further into demographics. Thus you have stations that are programmed for “females from 23-27 with blue eyes and blond hair driving American made automobiles” and “males from 15-18 with mild to heavy acne and like video games more than girls”.
BTW, there IS a conspiracy by the record labels. I found all the lables of my old albums in a corner one cold April morning in the late 80’s plotting the overthrow of the Sandanista’s. Once I told them that had already happened, they next set their sights on ruining the the Dallas Cowboys. 2 for 2 so far. Those lables are sneaky little bastards.
Moonchilde’s hit the proverbial nail on the proverbial head with regard to when the “Adult Contemporary” radio format started. I might also add that “Adult Contemporary” stations were also called “Middle of the Road” (or MOR) stations in the 1960’s and 70’s. “Middle of the Road” in this context meant the music fell between more youth-oriented Top 40/Rock on one hand and easy-listening elevator music on the other.
in the liner notes of neil youngs ‘decade’ album, he writes short blurbs for each of the included songs. for ‘heart of gold’ he wrote something like:
paraphrase:
heart of gold placed me in the middle of the road. it was boring so i headed for the ditch.
IIRC, he soon got it on with crazy horse (tonights the night was his next release, no?) nice ditch neil.
on review the actual quote is:
“This song put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there.”