How has Hot AC evolved over the last 20 years?

[degen]

I was looking at the landscape of Hot AC about 20 years ago and I was shocked at how many big pop hits weren’t big at all on the format? What the hell were they playing then?

For example, “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera hit #1 on Top 40, #1 on Adult Contemporary, yet only peaked at #19 on Hot AC. How was AC more tuned in with current pop than Hot AC? Even Rhythmic stations took the song higher with a #13 peak. A song like this today would be a sure fire #1 Hot AC hit.

Another example is Pink’s “Just Like a Pill” which peaked at #2 on Top 40 I believe, yet only peaked at #19 on Hot AC. This would no doubt be a #1 hit on Hot AC in todays land scape.

So what changed? How did the format evolve and what were they playing in the early 2000s for songs like this to not get more airplay?

[bat1990]

This sounds like a job for Hot AC Archiver

[degen]

Sorry I just rechecked some facts and apparently “Beautiful” peaked at #9 on Hot AC. Still low if you ask me.

[iHype.]

Back then the format was moreso a diet-Alternative for soccer moms... that's the best way I can describe it. John Mayer, Goo Goo Dolls, 3 Doors Down, Train, Matchbox 20, Green Day, etc.

Then in the late 2000s they transitioned to playing Pop hits (Katy Perry, P!nk, Taylor Swift, etc). I'm guessing because research proved it was simply a bigger draw in ratings with their demographic. Even Top 40 at this point was gravitating to making those artists their biggest names on the format.

Neither formats have truly turned away from that transition til this day for the most part so it clearly must be a better draw from them.

[degen]

May 11, 2022 17:07:30 GMT -5 iHype. said:

Back then the format was moreso a diet-Alternative for soccer moms... that's the best way I can describe it. John Mayer, Goo Goo Dolls, 3 Doors Down, Train, Matchbox 20, Green Day, etc.

Then in the late 2000s they transitioned to playing Pop hits (Katy Perry, P!nk, Taylor Swift, etc). I'm guessing because research proved it was simply a bigger draw in ratings with their demographic. Even Top 40 at this point was gravitating to making those artists their biggest names on the format.

Neither formats have truly turned away from that transition til this day for the most part so it clearly must be a better draw from them.

So basically because Top 40 radio almost completely cut off pop-rock acts (I think Nickelback was their last mainstay, and aside from Maroon 5’s resurrection as a hyper-pop band) it forced Hot AC to make an adjustment as well.

[iHype.]

May 11, 2022 17:28:46 GMT -5 degen said:

May 11, 2022 17:07:30 GMT -5 iHype. said:

Back then the format was moreso a diet-Alternative for soccer moms... that's the best way I can describe it. John Mayer, Goo Goo Dolls, 3 Doors Down, Train, Matchbox 20, Green Day, etc.

Then in the late 2000s they transitioned to playing Pop hits (Katy Perry, P!nk, Taylor Swift, etc). I'm guessing because research proved it was simply a bigger draw in ratings with their demographic. Even Top 40 at this point was gravitating to making those artists their biggest names on the format.

Neither formats have truly turned away from that transition til this day for the most part so it clearly must be a better draw from them.

So basically because Top 40 radio almost completely cut off pop-rock acts (I think Nickelback was their last mainstay, and aside from Maroon 5’s resurrection as a hyper-pop band) it forced Hot AC to make an adjustment as well.

I think Billboard's name for the format -- Adult Top 40 explains the format and is more fitting than Mediabase's (Hot Adult Contemporary).

The format started in the mid 90s, playing Top 40 hits but for a more adult crowd. Songs that weren't played on Adult Contemporary nor were geared for that format were even played. Like I said, diet-Alternative, names like Matchbox 20, No Doubt, Goo Goo Dolls, Sugar Ray in the 90s that could also get hits in Top 40. They were playing a lot of Top 40 hits in the 90s.

Then going into the 2000s, Top 40 format revamped and was now playing Teen-Pop (NSYNC, Backstreet, Britney, Christina, etc) mainly and lots of R&B/Hip-Hop crossovers. That type of music didn't bode well with adults who were into Top 40... so the HAC (Adult Top 40) kept continuing to play the diet-Alternative into the 00s as well.

However in late 00s Top 40 was finally beginning to play mostly music that also connected with the adults who liked Top 40. So then the formats began to mirror each other once again similar to the 90s.

The format has always seemed to be a more adult version of Top 40, rather than a 'current' version of Adult Contemporary. 90s & 00s Adult Contemporary was commonly playing Pop veterans past their prime (Journey, Chicago, Elton John, Phil Collins, Lionel Richie, etc) which was never what HAC was into as a format.

[gikem]

I was a frequent listener of my local Hot AC station for a lot of the 2000s, and I can attest to a lot of what iHype has said. I remember in the mid-2000s a lot of what was being played were "lighter" bands that had blown up in the '90s. In particular, I'm from the same city as the Goo Goo Dolls (Buffalo, NY), so I'm familiar with tons of their singles, alongside a lot of the big hits from those bands from circa 1995-2005. I also heard many of the big rock-leaning hits of the day from the likes of Nickelback, Maroon 5, P!nk, Kelly Clarkson, Green Day, Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, etc. There were a few major exceptions like OutKast's Hey Ya and Gnarls Barkley's Crazy, but I'd say they appealed so strongly to so many people that they were bound to cross over regardless.

As to when the shift to more pop-oriented material started happening, I would argue it was roughly in 2007. That was the year I heard songs like Irreplaceable, Say It Right, and The Sweet Escape pretty frequently, all of which came from solo artists whose music I didn't often hear on the station before (outside of maybe I'm Like A Bird for Nelly Furtado). By the end of the 2000s, Hot AC were going all-in on Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, leaving a lot of the old 2000s guard behind, probably as a response to dwindling listenership as iHype mentioned. That was also around when I stopped listening to that Hot AC station altogether.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

The way I think of Hot AC is that it's a radio format that plays current music (mixed with recurrents and gold songs) of the genre that its listeners would have been listening to 15-20 years ago when they were teens. So basically, Hot AC in the 2000s was playing lighter rock and pop for people who would have been teens in the 80s and 90s when lighter pop and rock was dominating. Similarly, people who were teens in the 2000s when rap and hip-hop was dominating are more open to hearing that now, which is why Hot AC has become more receptive to pop and rap in recent years.

It always amuses me when people comment on how songs aren't "hot AC friendly" because they have a rap in them, or are by rappers. It's a reminder that radio formats aren't always about genre.

[SabrinaFan]

May 11, 2022 22:43:10 GMT -5 Devil Marlena Nylund said:

The way I think of Hot AC is that it's a radio format that plays current music (mixed with recurrents and gold songs) of the genre that its listeners would have been listening to 15-20 years ago when they were teens. So basically, Hot AC in the 2000s was playing lighter rock and pop for people who would have been teens in the 80s and 90s when lighter pop and rock was dominating. Similarly, people who were teens in the 2000s when rap and hip-hop was dominating are more open to hearing that now, which is why Hot AC has become more receptive to pop and rap in recent years.

It always amuses me when people comment on how songs aren't "hot AC friendly" because they have a rap in them, or are by rappers. It's a reminder that radio formats aren't always about genre.

I completely agree with this, although I will say there are still a small group of Hot AC stations that are anti-rap. There's a station broadcasting from an extremely conservative small town near my area that will outright refuse to play any rap songs, will play a "no rap" edit for songs with a guest rap, and skipped "Blinding Lights" and all other songs by The Weeknd entirely (you could argue there's an element of racism in that, but at least they're playing Lizzo, I guess). They also censor songs to the point of being obnoxious, the most humorous recent example being censoring all instances of "damn" out of Andy Grammar's "Damn, It's Good to Be Me."

I totally agree with you though that saying Hot AC is inherently anti-rap is an overgeneralization, but it's worth pointing out that there are a small group of stations that still do that.

[Hot AC Archiver]

Looks like you all have covered it pretty well, so I don't have much to add.

During the early years of HAC, #1 songs were by Richard Marx, Elton John, Madonna, Mariah, and Celine. As other noted above, during Pop's new resurgence in the late 90s to early 2000s, #1s were by acts such as Matchbox 20, Goo Goo Dolls, Smash Mouth, Sheryl Crow, Lenny Kravitz, etc.

Britney Spears has never had a HAC top 10. Christina's first was "Beautiful". Backstreet Boys did not have a top 10 until 2018. P!nk's first top 10 was "U + Ur Hand". Now she has the 2nd most charted songs on HAC for a solo woman (2nd to Taylor Swift) and is in 3rd place for the act with the most top 10s.

Katy Perry helped usher in the more pop sounding phase of HAC. "California Gurls" spent 9 weeks at #1. Of course, I believe many stations cut out Snoop Dogg's rap.

By 2015 the Weeknd and Twenty One Pilots were hitting #1.

I used to post medleys of HAC #1 hits on YouTube, until they started taking them down because apparently 7 seconds of a song is too much to include. I still make them, but I can't share them. However, one seems to have slipped through the cracks. Part 1 of the medley, 1994 to early 2010, still exists at www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG_p0J0c2nA


Here are some records for the HAC format (Radio Records/Mediabase Data, 1994-present):

Most number ones:
1. Maroon 5 - 15
2. Pink - 10
3. Taylor Swift - 9
4. Katy Perry - 8
5. Ed Sheeran - 7

Most top 10 hits:
1. Maroon 5 - 26
2. Taylor Swift - 25
3. Pink - 18
4. Kelly Clarkson - 16
4. Katy Perry - 16

Biggest number one songs:

1. Smooth - Santana f/ Rob Thomas, 23 weeks at #1 1999-2000
2. Wherever You Will Go - The Calling, 20 weeks at #1, 2001-02
2. Unwell - Matchbox Twenty, 20 weeks at #1, 2003
2. Blinding Lights - The Weeknd, 20 weeks at #1, 2020
5. Bubbly - Colbie Caillat, 17 weeks at #1, 2007-08

My calculation of the top 100 HAC songs of all time: at40fan.info/hac/top100hac_revised.html

[degen]

All this is interesting info. Curious about how Rihanna/Beyonce faired on Hot AC? Did “Umbrella” smash on the format or was that too early on for it to do well. I recall hearing “Halo” and “Only Girl in the World” on Hot AC radio a lot, but not sure about the rest of their hits.

[Hot AC Archiver]

May 13, 2022 15:28:15 GMT -5 degen said:

All this is interesting info. Curious about how Rihanna/Beyonce faired on Hot AC? Did “Umbrella” smash on the format or was that too early on for it to do well. I recall hearing “Halo” and “Only Girl in the World” on Hot AC radio a lot, but not sure about the rest of their hits.

Rihanna has made 27 appearances on the HAC chart (including as a featured artist). Her biggest hits are: "Stay", #2 for 4 weeks, "We Found Love", #5, "Love on the Brain", #7 for 2 weeks, "This Is What You Came for" (Calvin Harris featuring...), #8 for 6 weeks, and "If I Never See Your Face Again" (Maroon 5 featuring...), #10. "Only Girl in the World" reached #11. "Umbrella" topped out at #27, as it was too early like you said.

Beyonce has made 9 appearances on the HAC chart. She has had no top 10s. Her biggest hit was "Telephone" with Lady GaGa, which peaked at #13. "Halo" reached #21.

[dkampy]

May 13, 2022 22:17:46 GMT -5 Hot AC Archiver said:

May 13, 2022 15:28:15 GMT -5 degen said:

All this is interesting info. Curious about how Rihanna/Beyonce faired on Hot AC? Did “Umbrella” smash on the format or was that too early on for it to do well. I recall hearing “Halo” and “Only Girl in the World” on Hot AC radio a lot, but not sure about the rest of their hits.

Rihanna has made 27 appearances on the HAC chart (including as a featured artist). Her biggest hits are: "Stay", #2 for 4 weeks, "We Found Love", #5, "Love on the Brain", #7 for 2 weeks, "This Is What You Came for" (Calvin Harris featuring...), #8 for 6 weeks, and "If I Never See Your Face Again" (Maroon 5 featuring...), #10. "Only Girl in the World" reached #11. "Umbrella" topped out at #27, as it was too early like you said.

Beyonce has made 9 appearances on the HAC chart. She has had no top 10s. Her biggest hit was "Telephone" with Lady GaGa, which peaked at #13. "Halo" reached #21.

Wow… I always assumed Umbrella and Irreplaceable smashed on Hot AC… as my local Hot AC played the heck out of both of those

[bigd79]

Aaah HAC in the late 90s and 2000s.... the golden years :)

[JukeboxJacob]

Contemporary was almost non-existent on the top charts in 2002. It was drowned out by rock & urban genres. 2006 was the big year contemporary started breaking into the mainstream again

[JukeboxJacob]

May 12, 2022 13:55:06 GMT -5 SabrinaFan said:

May 11, 2022 22:43:10 GMT -5 Devil Marlena Nylund said:

what they said

I completely agree with this, although I will say there are still a small group of Hot AC stations that are anti-rap. There's a station broadcasting from an extremely conservative small town near my area that will outright refuse to play any rap songs, will play a "no rap" edit for songs with a guest rap, and skipped "Blinding Lights" and all other songs by The Weeknd entirely (you could argue there's an element of racism in that, but at least they're playing Lizzo, I guess). They also censor songs to the point of being obnoxious, the most humorous recent example being censoring all instances of "damn" out of Andy Grammar's "Damn, It's Good to Be Me."

I totally agree with you though that saying Hot AC is inherently anti-rap is an overgeneralization, but it's worth pointing out that there are a small group of stations that still do that.

I already talked about this in another thread, but it bothers me how so much of the older generations still treat rap like it's inherently evil

[rainie]

May 14, 2022 22:42:42 GMT -5 JukeboxJacob said:

May 12, 2022 13:55:06 GMT -5 SabrinaFan said:

I completely agree with this, although I will say there are still a small group of Hot AC stations that are anti-rap. There's a station broadcasting from an extremely conservative small town near my area that will outright refuse to play any rap songs, will play a "no rap" edit for songs with a guest rap, and skipped "Blinding Lights" and all other songs by The Weeknd entirely (you could argue there's an element of racism in that, but at least they're playing Lizzo, I guess). They also censor songs to the point of being obnoxious, the most humorous recent example being censoring all instances of "damn" out of Andy Grammar's "Damn, It's Good to Be Me."

I totally agree with you though that saying Hot AC is inherently anti-rap is an overgeneralization, but it's worth pointing out that there are a small group of stations that still do that.

I already talked about this in another thread, but it bothers me how so much of the older generations still treat rap like it's inherently evil

thank you racism !!!