成人时代Adult Contemporary

成人时代（Adult Contemporary，简称AC）如字面所说，主要面向成年的成熟的听众。

它整体上延续了六七十年代的轻音乐、轻摇滚乐风，也受到灵魂、R&B、摇滚等风格的不同程度的影响，同时顺应时代适度融合流行/摇滚潮流。

重抒情，特别是爱情。浪漫的、细腻的乃至是些许伤感的主题，和成人时代的舒缓氛围、动听旋律、优美和声搭配绝佳。旋律上漂亮得足够吸引人，然而又漂亮得很成人风范，谦逊稳重，不争夺注意力，也非常适合用作背景音乐。

在AC电台，经典歌曲通常更受欢迎。多年来成人时代涌现了一批优秀的音乐家，包括Elton John, Billy Joel, Air Supply, Michael Bolton, Phil Cillins, Lionel Richie, Chicago, Celine Dion。

Adult contemporary music (AC) is a style of music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, soul, rhythm and blues, and rock influence. Adult contemporary is rather a continuation of the easy listening and soft rock style that became popular in the 1960s and 1970s with some adjustments that reflect the evolution of pop/rock music.  Adult contemporary tends to have lush, soothing and highly polished qualities where emphasis on melody and harmonies is accentuated. It is usually melodic enough to get a listener's attention, and is inoffensive and pleasurable enough to work well as background music. Like most of pop music, its songs tend to be written in a basic format employing a verse-chorus structure. Adult contemporary is heavy on romantic ballads which mostly use acoustic instruments (though bass guitar is usually used) such as acoustic guitars, pianos, saxophones, and sometimes an orchestral set. The electric guitars are normally faint and high-pitched. However, recent adult contemporary music may usually feature synthesizers (and other electronics, such as drum machines). AC radio may play mainstream music, but they will exclude hip hop, dance tracks, hard rock and some forms of teen pop, as they are less popular amongst the target demographic of these radio stations, which is intended for an adult audience. The AC Radio stations will often target the 25–44 age group, the demographic that has received the most attention from advertisers since the 1960s. Many adult contemporary stations play less newer music because they also give ample airtime to hits of the past, so the de-emphasis on new songs slows the progression of the AC chart. Over the years, AC has spawned numerous sub-genres: "hot AC", "soft AC" (also known as "lite AC"), "urban AC", "rhythmic AC", and "Christian AC" (i.e., a softer type of Contemporary Christian music). Some radio stations play only "hot AC", "soft AC", or only one of the variety of sub-genres. Therefore, it is not usually considered a specific genre of music; it is merely an assemblage of selected tracks from musicians of many different genres.