Urban Music

Targeting The Playlists:
All of these stations primarily focus on marketing to the African Americans that are between the ages of eighteen and thirty four, however there have been studies conducted that have shown that around seventy five percent of all listeners are Caucasian. All of their playlists are dominated by rhythm and blues and hip hop performers top selling singles. There are times, on occasion that an urban contemporary station will actually play the classic songs of soul music that stems from the seventies and the early eighties in order to satisfy the end of the format that is older or they will play what is performed by a Caucasian artist that is appealing to the black population. However their playlists are focused otherwise on the black artists that have released within the last five years.

Post-Nineties:
Since the nineties, the hits or urban contemporary music have dominated the pop charts in the United States. As the rhythm and blues and the pop charts have almost mirrored one another, there are several radio stations playing adult contemporary music that have made the transition to play some tracks that are also popular on the radio stations that play urban contemporary.

Urban contemporary today relates to music that can also be labeled as a classic rhythm and blues alternative. A typical song from the urban contemporary music genre is going to include electronic sounds and a dance beat.

Urban Adult Contemporary:
Urban Adult Contemporary is basically a subformat that is geared specifically toward the adult audiences of African Americans, and because of that, the artists that are played on these radio stations are most of the time going to be African American.

Rhythmic Contemporary:
Rhythmic contemporary, which is also referred to as Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio, Rhythmic Top 40, and Rhythmic Crossover is basically a radio format that consists of dance music being mixed with upbeat rhythmic pop, rhythm and blues and upbeat rhythmic pop hits. Even though most of the rhythmic station’s playlists are normally composed of what is mentioned above, there are some that have a tendency to lean closely to urban music, rhythm and blues hits and urban pop hits that gain appeal among the mainstream.