adult contemporary

adult contemporary (uncountable)

1. A category of music including soft rock, ballads, easy listening, soul, and rhythm and blues.

   Synonym: AC

   • 1990 January 2, Robert Christgau, “1980–1989: Rockism Faces the World”, in The Village Voice‎^[1]:

     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.