Adult Contemporary (chart) - Other Formats

Other Formats

Relatively few urban contemporary and hip-hop artists manage to successfully cross over to AC, although there have been a few recent exceptions, such as Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable," Fergie's ballad "Big Girls Don't Cry," Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," Rihanna's "Take a Bow" and Timbaland's remix of OneRepublic's "Apologize." R&B artists who have achieved success on the AC chart in the past include Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross (with her solo career), Whitney Houston and Lionel Richie.

Crossover from the country charts has also been common on the AC chart since the chart began. Among the country stars who had a number of singles cross over to the AC chart (and the pop chart as well) from the 1960s through the 1980s included Brenda Lee, Ray Price, Patsy Cline, Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Eddie Rabbitt, Crystal Gayle, Willie Nelson, and Juice Newton. The huge growth of country music as a radio format in the 1990s brought a number of new country crossovers onto the AC airwaves, including Martina McBride, Wynonna Judd, LeAnn Rimes, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Lonestar, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Garth Brooks. More recently, a new wave of country performers has been crossing over to AC, including Tim McGraw, the Dixie Chicks (who topped the AC chart with their cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide"), Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Sugarland, Lady Antebellum, Jason Aldean (whose AC success came by way of his duet with Kelly Clarkson, "Don't You Wanna Stay"), and The Band Perry.

The Contemporary Christian music market has also been relatively successful in crossing over to mainstream radio. In the mid-1980s, the most successful CCM artist at the time, Amy Grant, crossed over into secular music with the 1985 single "Find a Way," which became a Top Ten AC hit and a #1 Christian single simultaneously. In the 1990s and into the 2000s decade, other artists such as Lifehouse, MercyMe, Natalie Grant, Kathy Troccoli, Sixpence None the Richer, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Michael W. Smith have crossed in between the Christian and secular worlds with little disapproval from their fan bases.