Rhythmic contemporary

Rhythmic Contemporary, also known as Rhythmic Top 40, Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio and "Rhythmic Crossover," is a music radio format that includes of a mix of dance, and upbeat rhythmic pop, hip-hop, and R&B hits. While most rhythmic stations' playlists are comprised of that mentioned above, there are some tend to lean very urban with current hip-hop, urban pop, and R&B hits that gain mainstream appeal.

They will not play music with a harder rock sound or songs that sound too adult for their taste, leaving those songs to the conventional Top 40 stations.

Another factor of the format is like mainstream Top 40, they too also attract a broad based audience. However most of its core listeners makeup a multicultural mix of African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans as well as a core group of teens, young adults (mostly 18-34) and young females.

History

The origins of Rhythmic Top 40 can be traced back 1978 when WKTU on 92.3 FM New York City (now WFNY) became a disco based station. That station was classified as urban but played a blend of disco, dance music, and pop crossovers. Back then stations playing strictly R & B materials were known as Black stations. Stations like WKTU were known as Urban. In the 1980s many Urban contemporary began to spring up. Most of these leaned R & B and away from a lot of dance music. These urban stations began sounding identical to so called Black stations and by 1985 stations that played strictly R & B product were all known as Urban stations. Still some urban outlets continued adding artists from outside the format onto their playlist. In most cases it was dance and rhythmic pop but in other cases they added a few rock songs. But it wasn't until January 11, 1986 that KPWR Los Angeles, a former struggling adult contemporary outlet, began to make its mark with this genre by adopting this approach. It would be known as Crossover because of the musical mix and the avoidance of most Rock at the time. Billboard magazine took notice of this new format and on February 15, 1987, it launched the first Crossover chart. But by December 1990 Billboard eliminated the chart because more Top 40 and R&B stations were becoming identical with the rhythmic-heavy playlist that were also being played at the crossover stations at the time. Billboard would later revive the chart again in October 1992 as the Top 40 Rhythm/Crossover chart. On June 25 1997, it was renamed the Rhythmic Top 40 chart as a way to distinguish stations that continue to play a broad based rhythmic mix from those whose mix leaned heavily toward R&B and Hip-Hop.

For years since its inception, the Rhythmic name has been a source of confusion among music trades, especially in both Billboard (which used the Rhythmic Top 40 title) and Radio & Records (which use the CHR/Rhythmic title for their official charts). In August 2006 Billboard dropped both the "Top 40" and "CHR" name from the Rhythmic title after its sister publication Billboard Radio Monitor merged with Radio & Records to become the "New" R&R as part of their realignment of format categories. The move should also end confusion among the radio stations who report to their panels, which is expected to be modified by the end of 2006.

Still there contnues to be confusion of the distinction between Rhythmic CHR stations and Young Urban stations. In New York City WQHT Hot 97 strictly plays R & B and Hip Hop. Also in that city WPWR Power 105 plays a similar format. WQHT is classified as Top 40/Rhythm while WPWR is classified as Urban. Los Angeles is similar where KPWR and KKBT have similar formats but KPWR is considered Top 40/Rhythm while KKBT is considered Urban. One possible reason for this is precedent. When Hot 97 and Power 106 KPWR began they played alot of dance music and were classified as CHR outlets. This classification continued because they evolved gradually to a strictly Hip Hop/R & B format. As a result their label never changed. The other 2 stations were strictly R & B and Hip Hop since their inception. As a result they were never labeled CHR outlets. It is thought that, if Hot 97 New York aired today with the same identical playlist, they too would be considered Urban.

Still, over the years since its inception, the genre has grown and evolved but not without criticism. Traditional R&B outlets claim that the Rhythmic format does not target or serve the African-American community properly, while traditional Top 40 stations claim that the format is too urban to be Top 40. However, those claims have been all but slienced, with both R&B and mainstream Top 40 stations taking cues from the format they criticized.

In recent years the format has managed to carve its own niche by breaking such diverse acts such as Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears, Natalie, Baby Bash, Sean Paul, Eminem, Christina Aguilera, Frankie J, Jennifer Lopez, The Pussycat Dolls and JoJo. It has also embraced other sub genres as well with the emergence of dancehall and reggaeton acts such as Daddy Yankee and Nina Sky.

See also

• Rhythmic Top 40 panel
• Top 40 Mainstream