Rhythmic Contemporary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

1 History
2 "Churbans"
3 Core artists
4 See also

[edit] 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, 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.

[edit] "Churbans"

Still there contnues to be confusion of the distinction between Rhythmic CHR stations and "Churban" stations. In New York City WQHT Hot 97 strictly plays R & B and Hip Hop. Also in that city WWPR Power 105 plays a similar format. WQHT is classified as Top 40/Rhythm while WWPR is classified as Urban. Los Angeles is similar where KPWR and KDAY have similar formats but KPWR is considered Top 40/Rhythm while KDAY is considered Urban. Also very similar situations have occured in Washington, D.C. with WPGC-FM and San Francisco with KMEL. One possible reason for this is precedent. When these stations began they played a lot of dance music and were classified as CHR outlets. However, many critics say the ability to attract more mainstream advertisers as Rhythmic, rather than Urban, is the real reason, thus fueling the criticism from the African-American community in general.

However by 2005 KPWR began to re-add more Rhythmic Pop product after a seven-year gap (it had phased most of the Rhythmic and Dance product by 1997 when it had competition from KIBB and KACD/KBCD, both defunct), mostly in response to rival KIIS leaning towards a rhythmic direction. The move has resulted in KPWR and KIIS reigniting their Los Angeles Top 40 war. KPWR has also gone on the offensive to protect their hispanic demos in the wake of new Hurban rival KXOL making a dent in the ratings.

WQHT on the other hand, has moved more towards R&B/Hip-Hop as they step up their competition in the Big Apple with WWPR, which has gotten nasty with both stations blasting each other on the air and at high-profile concerts/events, as well as who claims ownership of who plays the most Hip-Hop in New York.

WPGC-FM began operating in 1987 as a Rhythmic that played R&B, hip-hop, dance, and pop music. Its playlist began to migrate to mostly Hip-Hop/R&B songs with R&B and soul slow songs on Sunday through Thursday nights since 1993, a format very similar to WKYS. This began a head-to-head battle with WKYS, but also Urban ACs, WHUR and WMMJ, due to them playing old school R&B and soul songs during the morning drive, overnight hours, and on weekends.

KMEL also began in 1987 as a Rhythmic that played began hip-hop, dance, freestyle, house, and reggae music. However, in 1992, its playlist began to lean more urban to battle with competitor KYLD, which ended in 1997 when both stations became sister stations. KMEL currently has a playlist that is Hip Hop/R&B music, and plays mostly R&B slow jams at night Sundays thru Thursdays and gospel music on Sunday Mornings, while KYLD plays a balanced mix of Rhythmic Pop, Hip-Hop/R&B and some Dance product geared towards Hispanic and Asians.

However, as of August 11, 2006, R&R moved WQHT, WPGC-FM, KMEL, and most "Churbans" to the Urban Contemporary Airplay Panel since they seldom play any type of Rhythmic pop product and is therefore not considered part of the 'Pure' Rhythmic community. However, despite the changes, there are a few "Churbans" who remain on the Rhythmic panel that are exceptions, mostly due to the lack of minorities in several major metropolitan markets that cannot support a mainstream Urban, like KTTB/Minneapolis-St. Paul and WJMN/Boston.