Meanings
- uncountableA category of music including soft rock, ballads, easy listening, soul, and rhythm and blues.
MTV is a singles medium, as is the hottest (warmest?) new radio strategy God help us, “adult contemporary”; even AOR devotes the contemporary portion of its programming to putative singles.
1990 January 2, Robert Christgau, “1980–1989: Rockism Faces the World”, in The Village Voice, archived from the original on 16 Jan 2022Synonyms: AC
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA category of music including soft rock, ballads, easy listening, soul, and rhythm and blues.
Cite this entry
adult contemporary. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adult%20contemporary
“adult contemporary.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adult%20contemporary. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “adult contemporary,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adult%20contemporary.
Source: adult contemporary on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.