Urban contemporary is a music radio format.

The term was coined by New York

DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid-1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a
playlist made up entirely of hip hop, R&B, grime, electronic dance music such as
dubstep, UK garage and drum and bass (often with hip hop vocalists or rappers),
and Caribbean music such as reggae, dancehall, reggaeton, zouk, bouyon, and
sometimes Soca (In Toronto, London, New York City, Boston and Miami). Urban
contemporary was developed through the characteristics of genres such as R&B
and soul.[1] Virtually all urban contemporary formatted radio stations are located
in cities that have sizeable African-American populations, such as New York City,
Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati,
Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Memphis, Boston, New
Orleans, Louisville, Indianapolis, Columbus, OH, Oklahoma City, and Charlotte.
The term "urban contemporary" is heavily associated with African-American
music, particularly for Contemporary R&B in African-American contexts. For Latin
Americans, the music is more Latin urban, such as Reggaeton, Latin hip hop and
Bachatn. Their playlists are dominated by singles by top-selling hip hop and
R&B performers. On occasion, an urban contemporary station will play classic
soul songs from the '70s and early '80s to satisfy the earlier end of the genre.
Most Urban formatted stations such as KJLH, KPRS, KMEL, KDAY, and WVEE will
play gospel music or urban contemporary gospel music on Sundays.
Mainstream urban is a branch of urban contemporary, and rhythmic
contemporary is also a branch.
Contents
1 History
1.1 The 1970s
1.2 The 1980s
1.3 1990spresent
2 See also
3 References
History
The 1970s
When Frankie Crocker was appointed as program director of the newly created
WBLS in 1974, he created an eclectic music mix of R&B and disco redefining the
R&B format as urban contemporary. The station was an instant success, the most
listened-to radio station in the country[citation needed]. In 1975, WDMT in
Cleveland began programming a mix of rhythm blues R&B, disco and rap. The
station featured live street jocks mixing vinyl records each night. The station's
popularity grew and in 1980, it was Arbitron rated No. 2 12+, just behind the No.
1 rated WMMS with the original "Morning Zoo". Carol Ford hosted the morning
drive show. Other famous people who worked at WDMT include: Tony Harris
(CNN), Len Canon (NBC, Fox-NYC), Brenda Love, Kim Skillern (Lady Skill), Matt
Morgan, Dean Rufus, Freddie James, Jay Wachs (Jay Fox), Jeff Foxx, Mike Love,
Mike Chapman, Rod See, Eric Fasion and Vanilla Fudge.

The 1980s
WBLS in New York City was the first station to air a rap radio show, Rap Attack
with Mr. Magic and Marley Marl, in 1983.[2]
During the early 1980s as newly formed WRKS-FM (98.7 Kiss FM) became the
first rap station in the United States[citation needed], WBLS quickly began
adding more rap songs to its playlists. The urban format by this time was
redefined by an eclectic mix of R&B, rap, reggae, dance, house, and freestyle.
WBLS continued as the flagship station of the Urban format; however, Kiss FM
surpassed them in the ratings. Another successful early Urban outlet was WDRQ
in Detroit, which switched from a Top 40 format in the spring of 1982 and made a
#2 showing 12+ in its first Arbitron ratings book. In addition to rap, R&B and
dance music, WDRQ featured mainstream pop music with a danceable beat from
artists such as Cyndi Lauper and Culture Club in rotation.
Many radio stations imitated the urban sound since it was proven to be more
profitable than other formats and had proven itself more adept than
straightforward black-targeted R&B formats at attracting white and Latino
listeners. Another subformat of urban contemporary is rhythmic contemporary
hits which plays a great deal of dance music. WQHT-FM (Hot 97) and KPWR
(Power 106) were the first stations to utilize this format.
1990spresent
Since the 1990s, as urban contemporary hits have dominated the US pop charts,
many Top 40 stations have turned to playing some tracks popular on urban
contemporary radio stations.
Following periods of fluctuating success, urban music attained commercial
dominance during the early 2000s, which featured massive crossover success on
the Billboard charts by R&B rhythm blues and hip hop artists.[3] In 2004, all 12
songs that topped Billboard Hot 100 were African-American recording artists and
accounted for 80% of the number-one R&B hits that year.[3] Along with Usher's
streak of singles, Top 40 radio and both pop and R&B charts were topped by
OutKast's Hey Ya! Snoop Dogg's Drop It Like It's Hot, Terror Squad's Lean Back
and Ciara's Goodies[3] Chris Molanphy of The Village Voice later remarked that
by the early 2000s, urban music was pop music [3]
By the early 2010s, urban music had taken a backseat on Top 40 radio to
mainstream dance pop and EDM sounds, and several successful urban artists,
including Rihanna, Chris Brown, Usher, and Ne-Yo, were making dance/EDM
records for Top 40 airplay while continuing to make hip-hop or pure R&B records
for urban airplay. Pure urban formats continue to be successful in markets with
large African-American populations, while medium or smaller markets are more
likely to feature urban music through the subset of Rhythmic CHR stations with
danceable mainstream CHR hits mixed in.
Today, urban contemporary music is a crossover of rap and contemporary R&B,
which in some instances may be accompanied with dance beats.
The Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration has been awarded since
2002.