Adult Contemporary
Adult contemporary music (also known as "soft rock" or "lite-rock"), began to somewhat decrease in popularity starting in the late 1990s (due to the increasing popularity of Top 40 music) into January 2000 until September 11, 2001. After 9/11, popularity for Adult Contemporary Music (as well as Contemporary Christian Music crossovers) increased tri-fold during the grieving process, when the 25–44 Conservative Female Demographic favoured listening to songs with appropriate, positive and uplifting lyrics containing love and hope. Upon the eventual return back to normalcy after 9/11, the popularity of Adult Contemporary music held steady until about 2003, when Billboard began to change their chart formats. This led to Adult Contemporary stations to program their music "not-as-soft" or "cheesy" as they used to, and ended up substituting the words "soft-rock" with "lite-rock", which has a more modern-edged connotation. Yet, AC stations remained careful to not cross the Adult Top 40 format line. Because of all these changes, AC Stations slowly increased in popularity.
In the late 2000s, artists like Coldplay, Daughtry and Gavin Rossdale were finding more success crossing over onto the Adult Contemporary charts.
On the female side, artists like Sara Bareilles, Colbie Caillat, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys, and Leona Lewis continued to find crossover success on the Adult Contemporary charts as well. AC veterans such as Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Phil Collins, The Eagles, Cyndi Lauper, Alanis Morissette and Sheryl Crow continued to release music only on the Adult Contemporary formats. There are three songs which experienced longevity atop the chart, "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles, "Bubbly" by Colbie Caillat, and "Breakaway" from Kelly Clarkson spent a longevity 20 weeks atop the chart.
Alicia Keys is considered the most successful R&B singer of the decade with 30 million records sold worldwide. Keys scored hits in the U.S. charts with seven songs on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and four songs on the Billboard 100. She shares a record with Britney Spears, being the only two female singers to have their first four albums debuting in first place in the chart Billboard Hot 200. Beyoncé Knowles would become the third female singer to accomplish this feat in 2011.
Norah Jones is considered the greatest Jazz singer of the decade with 37 million records worldwide. She broke worldwide in 2003, a year after releasing her debut album Come Away With Me with 10 million copies sold in United States of America and 20 million sold worldwide. Jones continued her success with her second album becoming the biggest selling album in one week with 1,900,000 million copies sold, going on to release two more bestselling albums in the 2000s, and having 3 albums debut in the Billboard 200 and winning eight Grammys with her debut album and 12 Grammys in total during the decade.
Read more about this topic: 2000s In Music, The U.S. and North America, Pop
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