title: Videocassette recorder

text: The video cassette recorder is sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity. If the machine (or tape) was moved from a cold to a hotter environment there could be condensation of moisture on the internal parts, such as the rotating video head drum. Some later models were equipped with a dew warning which would prevent operation in this case, but it could not detect moisture on the surface of a tape. The presence of moisture between the tape and the rotating head drum increases friction which prevents correct operation and can cause damage to both the recording device and the tape. In extreme cases, if the dew sensor fails to function and stop the video recorder, moisture can cause the tape to stick to the spinning video head. This can pull a large amount of tape from the cassette before the head drum stops spinning. The tape will be extensively damaged, the video heads will often become clogged, and the mechanism may be unable to eject the cassette. The dew sensor itself is mounted very close to the video head drum. Contrary to how one might expect this to behave, the sensor increases its resistance when moisture is present. Poor contacts on the sensor can therefore be a cause of random dew sensor warnings. Usually, a "DEW" indicator or error code lights up on the display of most VCRs/camcorders, and on some, a buzzer may sound.


title: Videocassette recorder

text: Magnetic tapes could be mechanically damaged when ejected from the machine due to moisture or other problems. Rubber drive belts and rollers hardened with age, causing malfunctions.


title: Videocassette recorder

text: From about 2000 DVD became the first universally successful optical medium for playback of pre-recorded video, as it gradually overtook VHS to become the most popular consumer format. DVD recorders and other digital video recorders dropped rapidly in price, making the VCR obsolete. DVD rentals in the United States first exceeded those of VHS in June 2003.


title: Videocassette recorder

text: The declining market, combined with a US FCC mandate effective March 1, 2007, that all new TV tuners in the US include ATSC and QAM support, encouraged major electronics manufacturers to end production of standalone units, with VCR/DVD combo decks being made since then; most of them then can only record from external baseband sources (usually composite video), including CECBs which (by NTIA mandate) all have composite outputs, as well as those ATSC tuners (including TVs) and cable boxes that come with composite outputs; some combo units that allow recording to DVD do include an ATSC tuner built into them. JVC did ship one model of D-VHS deck with a built-in ATSC tuner, the HM-DT100U, but it remains extremely rare, and therefore expensive. In July 2016, Funai Electric, the last remaining manufacturer of VHS VCR/DVD combo recorders, announced it would cease production of VHS recorders by the end of the month.


title: Videocassette recorder

text: As a result of winning the format war over HD DVD, the new high definition optical disc format Blu-ray Disc was expected to replace the DVD format. However, with many homes still having a large supply of VHS tapes and with all Blu-ray players designed to play regular DVDs and CDs by default, some manufacturers began to make VCR/Blu-ray combo players.


title: Videocassette recorder

text: Due to the path followed by the video and Hi-Fi audio heads being striped and discontinuous—unlike that of the linear audio track—head-switching is required to provide a continuous audio signal. While the video signal can easily hide the head-switching point in the invisible vertical retrace section of the signal, so that the exact switching point is not very important, the same is obviously not possible with a continuous audio signal that has no inaudible sections. Hi-Fi audio is thus dependent on a much more exact alignment of the head switching point than is required for non-HiFi VHS machines. Misalignments may lead to imperfect joining of the signal, resulting in low-pitched buzzing.


title: Videocassette recorder

text: Most camcorders produced in the 20th century also feature an integrated VCR. Generally, they include neither a timer nor a TV tuner. Most of these use smaller format videocassettes, such as 8 mm, VHS-C, or MiniDV, although some early models supported full-size VHS and Betamax. In the 21st century, digital recording became the norm while videocassette tapes dwindled away gradually; tapeless camcorders use other storage media such as DVDs, or internal flash memory, hard drive, and SD card.


title: The Clash (album)

text: The Clash is the debut studio album by English punk rock band the Clash. It was released on 8 April 1977 through CBS Records. Recorded and mixed over three weeks in February 1977 for £4,000, it would go on to reach No. 12 on the UK charts, and has been included on many retrospective rankings as one of the greatest punk albums of all time.


title: The Clash (album)

text: Songs on the album were composed by guitarists Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, with the notable exception of the reggae cover "Police and Thieves". Several songs from these sessions, including "Janie Jones", "White Riot", and "London's Burning" became classics of the punk genre and were among the first punk songs to see significant presence on singles charts. The album featured Jones and Strummer sharing guitar and vocal duties, with Paul Simonon on bass and Terry Chimes on drums, his only studio appearance with the band.


title: The Clash (album)

text: The album was not released in the US until 1979, making it their second US release. The US version also included a significantly different track listing, changing the track order and swapping out several songs for non-album tracks recorded in the interim.


title: The Clash (album)

text: Most of the album was conceived on the 18th floor of a council high rise on London's Harrow Road, in a flat that was rented by Mick Jones's grandmother, who frequently went to see their live concerts. The album was recorded over three weekend sessions at CBS Studio 3 in February 1977. By the third of these sessions, the album was recorded and mixed to completion, with the tapes being delivered to CBS at the start of March. It cost £4,000 to produce.


title: The Clash (album)

text: The cover artwork was designed by Polish artist Rosław Szaybo. The album's front cover photo, shot by Kate Simon, was taken in the alleyway directly opposite the front door of the band's 'Rehearsal Rehearsals' building in Camden Market. Drummer Terry Chimes, though a full member of the Clash at the time, did not appear in the picture as he had already decided to leave the group. Another picture from the same Kate Simon photoshoot appears on the UK Special Edition DVD of "Rude Boy", released in 2003. The picture of the charging police officers on the rear, shot by Rocco Macauly, was taken during the 1976 riot at the Notting Hill Carnival—the inspiration for the track "White Riot".


title: The Clash (album)

text: The subject of the opening track, "Janie Jones", was a famous brothel keeper in London during the 1970s. "Remote Control" was written by Mick Jones after the "Anarchy Tour" and contains pointed observations about the civic hall bureaucrats who had cancelled concerts, the police, big business and especially record companies. CBS decided to release the song as a single without consulting the band. "I'm So Bored with the USA", developed from a Mick Jones song titled "I'm So Bored with You", condemns the Americanization of the UK. "White Riot" was the Clash's debut single. The song is short and intense, in a punk style of two chords played very fast (five chords are used in the whole song). Lyrically, it is about class economics and race.


title: The Clash (album)

text: "Career Opportunities", the opening track of the second side of the album, attacks the political and economic situation in England at the time, citing the lack of jobs available, and the dreariness and lack of appeal of those that were available.


title: The Clash (album)

text: "Protex Blue", sung by Mick Jones, is about a 1970s brand of condom. It was inspired by the contraceptive vending machine in the Windsor Castle's toilets. The song ends with the shouted phrase "Johnny Johnny!", johnny being a British slang term for a condom.


title: The Clash (album)

text: The version of "White Riot" featured on the album was not recorded for the album; the original demo (recorded at Beaconsfield Studios before the band signed to CBS) was used instead.


title: The Clash (album)

text: "Police & Thieves" was added to the album when the group realised that the track listing was too short. Another cover the band played at these sessions was The Wailers' "Dancing Shoes". "Garageland" was written in response to Charles Shaar Murray's damning review of the Clash's early appearance at the Sex Pistols Screen on the Green concert – "The Clash are the kind of garage band who should be returned to the garage immediately, preferably with the engine running". It was the final track recorded for the album.


title: The Clash (album)

text: It was released in the United Kingdom through CBS Records on 8 April 1977, engineered by CBS staff engineer Simon Humphrey and produced by Clash live soundman Mickey Foote, at the (since demolished) CBS Whitfield Street Studio No. 3. "The Clash" was unusually musically varied for a punk band, with reggae and early rock and roll influences plainly evident.


title: The Clash (album)

text: When the album was released in April 1977, Tony Parsons wrote in the "New Musical Express": “Jones and Strummer write with graphic perception about contemporary Great British urban reality as though it’s suffocating them … Their songs don’t lie … The Clash have made an album that consists of some of the most exciting rock’n’roll in contemporary music.” Mark Perry declared in "Sniffin’ Glue": “The Clash album is like a mirror. It reflects all the shit. It shows us the truth. To me, it is the most important album ever released.” The review by Kris Needs in April 1977's "Zigzag" announced: “This is the most exciting album I’ve heard in years … it’s one of the most important records ever made.”


title: The Clash (album)

text: In his 1979 consumer guide for "The Village Voice", critic Robert Christgau gave the album's US release an "A" grade and stated, "Cut for cut, this may be the greatest rock and roll album (plus limited-edition bonus single) ever manufactured in the U.S. It offers 10 of the 14 titles on the band's British debut as well as 7 of the 13 available only on 45. [...] The U.K. version of "The Clash" is the greatest rock and roll album ever manufactured anywhere". In his decade-end list for the newspaper, he ranked the UK version as the best album of the 1970s.


title: The Clash (album)

text: In 1993, the "New Musical Express" ranked the album number 13 on its list of the greatest albums of all time. "NME" also ranked "The Clash" number three on its list of the Greatest Albums of the '70s, and wrote in the review that "the speed-freaked brain of punk set to the tinniest, most frantic guitars ever trapped on vinyl. Lives were changed beyond recognition by it".


title: The Clash (album)

text: In 1999, "Q" magazine wrote that the Clash "would never sound so punk as they did on 1977's self-titled debut", calling it a "lyrically intricate" album that "still howled with anger". In 2000, "Alternative Press" described "The Clash" as "the eternal punk album" and "a blueprint for the pantomime of 'punkier' rock acts", concluding that "for all of its forced politics and angst, "The Clash" continues to sound crucial."


title: The Clash (album)

text: "The Clash" was voted number 180 in Colin Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums" (2000). "Q" placed "The Clash" at number 48 on its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever" in 2000, and included the album in its "100 Best Punk Albums of All Time" list in 2002. "Spin" ranked the album at number three on its 2001 list of the "50 Most Essential Punk Records", calling it "punk as alienated rage, as anticorporate blather, as joyous racial confusion, as evangelic outreach and white knuckles and haywire impulses". In 2003, "Mojo" ranked "The Clash" at second place on its list of the "Top 50 Punk Albums", deeming it "the ultimate punk protest album". The same year, the US version was ranked number 77 on "Rolling Stone"s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album was re-ranked at number 81 in 2012, and at number 102 in the 2020 update. The album was included in Robert Dimery's "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".


title: The Clash (album)

text: Noted Jamaican producer Lee Perry heard the album while in London in 1977, and played it to Bob Marley, who in turn mentioned the Clash on his own track "Punky Reggae Party".


title: The Clash (album)

text: In the United States, the Clash's debut studio album was released one year after "Give 'Em Enough Rope", making it their second release in the US. CBS in America had decided that the album was 'not radio friendly', so it was initially only available in the States during 1977–1978 as an import, and as such became the best-selling import of the year, selling over 100,000 copies.


title: The Clash (album)

text: In July 1979, Epic released a modified version of the album for the United States market. This version replaced four songs from the original version with five non-album singles and B-sides, some of which were recorded and released after the Clash's second studio album, "Give 'Em Enough Rope" (1978). It also used the re-recorded single version of "White Riot", rather than the original take featured on the UK version.


title: The Clash (album)

text: Initial copies of the US version also came with a bonus 7-inch single which featured "Groovy Times" and "Gates of the West". The liner notes incorrectly credit new drummer Nicky Headon for "White Riot".


title: The Clash (album)

text: It was another moderately successful album for the Clash in the United States, even though the sales were likely diluted by the longstanding popularity of the UK version on the import market. "The Clash" peaked at number 126 on the "Billboard" charts, setting the stage for the commercial breakthrough of "London Calling" later that year. Since the Clash's first UK album had already been released in Canada by CBS Records, when CBS Canada released the US version, they changed the cover art so as to not confuse the record-buying public. The CBS Canada version of the LP has a dark blue border instead of green. Initial copies also contained the bonus "Groovy Times" 7". Some original cassette pressings of the US version featured "What's My Name?" as track 4 and "Complete Control" as track 11. Though the back of these original pressings list the two songs as they are featured on recent versions of the album.


title: Anomalocaris

text: Anomalocaris ("unlike other shrimp", or "abnormal shrimp") is an extinct genus of radiodont, an order of early-diverging stem-group arthropods. The first fossils of "Anomalocaris" were discovered in the "Ogygopsis" Shale of the Stephen Formation in British Columbia, Canada by Joseph Frederick Whiteaves, with more examples found by Charles Doolittle Walcott in the Burgess Shale unit of the Stephen Formation. Other closely related fossils have been found in the older Emu Bay Shale of Australia, as well as possibly elsewhere. Originally several fossilized parts discovered separately (the mouth, frontal appendages and trunk) were thought to be three separate creatures, a misapprehension corrected by Harry B. Whittington and Derek Briggs in a 1985 journal article. With a body length close to 40 centimetres, "A. canadensis" is thought to be one of the earliest examples of an apex predator, though others have been found in older Cambrian lagerstätten deposits.


title: Anomalocaris

text: "Anomalocaris" has been misidentified several times, in part due to its makeup of a mixture of mineralized and unmineralized body parts; the mouth and frontal appendage was considerably harder and more easily fossilized than the delicate body. "Anomalocaris" fossils were first collected in 1886 or 1888 by Richard G. McConnell of the Geological Survey of Canada. The specimens were described and named in 1892 by GSC paleontologist Joseph Frederick Whiteaves. The specimens are now known to represent isolated frontal appendages, but Whiteaves interpreted them as the abdomens of phyllocarid crustaceans. Noting its unusual anatomy for the abdomen of a crustacean, Whiteaves gave it the name "Anomalocaris", meaning "unlike other shrimps". In 1928, Danish paleontologist Kai Henriksen proposed that "Tuzoia", a Burgess Shale arthropod which was known only from the carapace, represented the missing front half of "Anomalocaris". The artists Elie Cheverlange and Charles R. Knight followed this interpretation in their depictions of "Anomalocaris".


title: Anomalocaris

text: Unbeknownst to scientists at the time, the body parts of relatives of "Anomalocaris" had already been described but not recognized as such. The first fossilized mouth of such kind of animal was discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott, who mistook it for a jellyfish and placed it in the genus "Peytoia". Walcott also discovered a frontal appendage but failed to realize the similarities to Whiteaves' discovery and instead identified it as feeding appendage or tail of the coexisted "Sidneyia". In the same publication in which he named "Peytoia", Walcott named "Laggania", a taxon that he interpreted as a holothurian.


title: Anomalocaris

text: In 1966, the Geological Survey of Canada began a comprehensive revision of the Burgess Shale fossil record, led by Cambridge University paleontologist Harry B. Whittington. In the process of this revision, Whittington and his students Simon Conway Morris and Derek Briggs would discover the true nature of "Anomalocaris" and its relatives, but not without contributing to the history of misinterpretations first. In 1978, Conway Morris recognized that the mouthparts of "Laggania" were identical to "Peytoia", but concluded that "Laggania" was a composite fossil made up of "Peytoia" and the sponge "Corralio undulata". In 1979, Briggs recognized that the fossils of "Anomalocaris" were appendages, not abdomens, and proposed that they were the walking legs of a giant arthropod, and that the feeding appendage Walcott had assigned to "Sidneyia" was the feeding appendage of similar animal, referred to as "appendage F". Later, while clearing what he thought was an unrelated specimen, Harry B. Whittington removed a layer of covering stone to discover the unequivocally connected frontal appendage identical to "Anomalocaris" and mouthpart similar to "Peytoia". Whittington linked the two species, but it took several more years for researchers to realize that the continuously juxtaposed "Peytoia", "Laggania" and frontal appendages ("Anomalocaris" and "appendage F") actually represented a single group of enormous creatures. The two genera have now been placed into the order Radiodonta and are commonly known as radiodonts or anomalocaridids. Since "Peytoia" was named first, it is the accepted correct name for the entire animal. However, the original frontal appendage was from a larger species distinct from "Peytoia" and ""Laggania"" and therefore retains the name "Anomalocaris".


title: Anomalocaris

text: In 2011 and 2020, compound eyes of "Anomalocaris" were recovered from a paleontological dig at Emu Bay on Kangaroo Island, Australia, proving that "Anomalocaris" was indeed an arthropod as had been suspected. The find also indicated that advanced arthropod eyes had evolved very early, before the evolution of jointed legs or hardened exoskeletons.


title: Anomalocaris

text: In 2021, ""A."" "saron" and ""A."" "magnabasis" were reassigned to the new genus "Houcaris", in the family Tamisiocarididae. In the same year, ""A."" "pennsylvanica" was reassigned to the genus "Lenisicaris". In 2022, specimen ELRC 20001 that was treated as unnamed species of "Anomalocaris" or whole-body specimen of "A. saron" got new genus, "Innovatiocaris". Multiple phylogenetic analysis also suggest ""A". briggsi" (tamisiocaridid) and ""A". kunmingensis" (amplectobeluid) are not species of "Anomalocaris" as well, and wait to be renamed as the formal species had been done.


title: Anomalocaris

text: Stephen Jay Gould cites "Anomalocaris" as one of the fossilized extinct species he believed to be evidence of a much more diverse set of phyla that existed in the Cambrian Period, discussed in his book "Wonderful Life", a conclusion disputed by other paleontologists.


title: Anomalocaris

text: For the time in which it lived, "Anomalocaris" was gigantic, up to long excluding the tail fan and frontal appendages. Previous estimation up to is unlikely based on the ratio of body parts (body length measured only about 2 times the length of frontal appendage in "A. canadensis", respectively) and the size of largest frontal appendage (up to in length when extended). It propelled itself through the water by undulating the flexible flaps on the sides of its body. Each flap sloped below the one more posterior to it, and this overlapping allowed the lobes on each side of the body to act as a single "fin", maximizing the swimming efficiency. The construction of a remote-controlled model showed this mode of swimming to be intrinsically stable, implying that "Anomalocaris" would not have needed a complex brain to manage balance while swimming. The body was widest between the third and fifth lobe and narrowed towards the tail, with additional 3 pairs of small flaps on the constricted neck region. It is difficult to distinguish lobes near the tail, making an accurate count difficult. For the main trunk flaps, the type species "A. canadensis" had 13 pairs.


title: Anomalocaris

text: "Anomalocaris" had an unusual disk-like mouth known as oral cone. The oral cone was composed of several plates organized triradially. Three of the plates were quite large. Three to four medium sized plates could be found between each of the large plates, and several small plates between them. Most of the plates wrinkled and possess scale-like tubercles near the mouth opening. Such an oral cone is very different from those of a typical hurdiid radiodont like "Peytoia" and "Hurdia", which is smooth and tetraradial. Two large frontal appendage were positioned in front of the mouth, at the front of the head. As a shared character across radiodonts, "Anomalocaris" also possessed three sclerites on the top and side of its head. The top one, known as a head shield, dorsal carapace or H-element, was shaped like an laterally-elongated oval, with a distinct rim on the outer edge. The remaining two lateral sclerites, known as P-elements, were also ovoid, but connected by a bar-like outgrowth. The P-elements were previously misinterpreted as two huge compound eyes.


title: Anomalocaris

text: The different species had various bodies. Some had a tail furcae and telson, while others had no tail. And some had a naked body while others were covered by plates.


title: Anomalocaris

text: "Anomalocaris" usually possessed 14 podomeres (segmental units, at least 1 for shaft and 13 for distal articulated region) on each laterally-flattened frontal appendage, almost each one tipped with a pair of endites (ventral spines). The endites themselves were both equipped with multiple auxiliary spines, which branches off from the anterior and posterior margin of the endites. The tail was a large tail fan, composed of three pairs of large, lateral fin-shaped lobes and one terminal lobe-like tailpiece. Previous studies suggest the tail fan was used to propel it through Cambrian waters, while further hydrodynamic study rather suggest it was more adapted to provide steering function. The gills of the animal, in the form of long, thin, hair-like structures known as lanceolate blades, were arranged in rows forming setal blades. The setal blades were attached by their margin to the top side of the animal, two setal blades per body segment. A divide ran down the middle, separating the gills.


title: Anomalocaris

text: Based on fossilized eyes from the Emu Bay Shale, which belonged to an unnamed "Anomalocaris" ("A." cf. "canadensis") from the same stratus (previously thought to be those of ""A". briggsi", a species which is unlikely an "Anomalocaris"), the eyes of "Anomalocaris" were 30 times more powerful than those of trilobites, long thought to have had the most advanced eyes of any contemporary species. With 16,000 lenses, the resolution of the eyes would have been rivalled only by that of the modern dragonfly, which has 28,000 lenses in each eye. Additionally, estimation of ecdysozoan opsins suggest that "Anomalocaris" may have had dichromatic Color vision.


title: Anomalocaris

text: The interpretation of "Anomalocaris" as an active predator is widely accepted throughout the history of research, as its raptorial frontal appendages and mid-gut glands strongly suggest a predatory lifestyle. In the case of "A. canadensis", its outstanding size amongst Burgess Shale fauna also making it one of the first apex predators known to exist.


title: Anomalocaris

text: However, the long-standing idea that "Anomalocaris" fed on hard-bodied animals, especially its ability to penetrate mineralized exoskeleton of trilobites, has been questioned. Some Cambrian trilobites have been found with round or W-shaped "bite" marks, which were identified as being the same shape as the mouthparts of "Peytoia" (previously misidentified as those of "Anomalocaris"). Stronger evidence that "Anomalocaris" ate trilobites comes from coprolite, which contain trilobite parts and are so large that the anomalocarids are the only known organism from that period large enough to have produced them. However, since "Anomalocaris" lacks any mineralized tissue, it seemed unlikely that it would be able to penetrate the hard, calcified shell of trilobites. Rather, the coprolites may have been produced by a different organisms, such as the trilobites of the genus "Redlichia". Another suggested possibility is that "Anomalocaris" fed by grabbing one end of their prey in its oral cone while using its frontal appendages to quickly rock the other end of the animal back and forth. This produced stresses that exploited the weaknesses of arthropod cuticles, causing the prey's exoskeleton to rupture and allowing the predator to access its innards. This behaviour was originally thought to have provided an evolutionary pressure for trilobites to roll up, to avoid being flexed until they snapped. They could also have attacked soft trilobites that had just molted.


title: Anomalocaris

text: The lack of wear on radiodont mouthparts suggests they did not come into regular contact with mineralized trilobite shells, and were possibly better suited to feeding on smaller, soft-bodied organisms by suction, since they would have experienced structural failure if they were used against the armour of trilobites. "A. canadensis" may have been capable of feeding on organisms with hard exoskeletons due to the short, robust spines on its frontal appendages. However, this conclusion is solely based on the comparison with the fragile frontal appendages of suspension feeding radiodonts (e.g. ""A". briggsi" and "Houcaris" spp.). As opposed to "Peytoia" whose oral cone is more rectangular with short protruding spines, the oral cone of "A. canadensis" has a smaller and more irregular opening, not permitting strong biting motions, and indicating a suction-feeding behavior to suck in softer organisms. Three-dimensional modelling of various radiodont frontal appendages also suggest that "A. canadensis" is more capable to prey on smaller (2–5 cm in diameter), active, soft-bodied animals (e.g. vetulicolian; free-swimming arthropods; "Nectocaris").


title: Anomalocaris

text: "Anomalocaris canadensis" lived in the Burgess Shale in relatively great numbers, though comparable fossils have been found elsewhere, suggesting a more expansive range over the Laurentian continent. In the Burgess Shale, "Anomalocaris" is more common in the older sections, notably the Mount Stephen trilobite beds. However, in the younger sections, such as the Phyllopod bed, "Anomalocaris" could reach much greater sizes; roughly twice the size of its older, trilobite bed relatives. These rare giant specimens have previously been referred to a separate species, "Anomalocaris gigantea"; however, the validity of this species has been called into question, and is currently synonymized to "A. canadensis".


title: Anomalocaris

text: Other unnamed species of "Anomalocaris" live in vastly different environments. For example, "Anomalocaris" cf. "canadensis" (JS-1880) lived in the Maotianshan Shales, a shallow tropical sea or even being delta in what is now modern China. "Anomalocaris" cf. "canadensis" (Emu Bay Shale) lived in a comparable environment; the shallow, tropical waters of Cambrian Australia. The Maotianshan Shale and the Emu Bay Shale are very close in proximity, being separated by a small landmass, far from the Burgess Shale. These two locations also included ""Anomalocaris" kunmingensis" and ""Anomalocaris" briggsi" respectively, species that previously attributed but taxonomically unlikely to be a member of "Anomalocaris" nor even Anomalocarididae.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet storm and rock influence. Adult contemporary is generally a continuation of the easy listening and soft rock style that became popular in the 1960s and 1970s with some adjustments that reflect the evolution of pop/rock music.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Adult contemporary tends to have lush, soothing and highly polished qualities where emphasis on melody and harmonies is accentuated. It is usually melodic enough to get a listener's attention, and is inoffensive and pleasurable enough to work well as background music. Like most of pop music, its songs tend to be written in a basic format employing a verse–chorus structure. The format is heavy on romantic sentimental ballads which mostly use acoustic instruments (though bass guitar is usually used) such as acoustic guitars, pianos, saxophones, and sometimes an orchestral set. The electric guitars are normally faint and high-pitched. However, recent adult contemporary music may feature synthesizers (and other electronics, such as drum machines).


title: Adult contemporary music

text: An AC radio station may play mainstream music, but it usually excludes hip-hop and some forms of dance-pop and teen pop, as these are less popular among adults, the target demographic. AC radio often targets the 25–44 age group, the demographic that has received the most attention from advertisers since the 1960s. A common practice in recent years of adult contemporary stations is to play less newer music and more hits of the past. This de-emphasis on new songs slows the progression of the AC chart.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Over the years, AC has spawned subgenres including "hot AC" (also known as "modern AC"), "soft AC" (also known as "lite AC"), "urban AC" (a softer type of urban contemporary music), "rhythmic AC" (a softer type of rhythmic contemporary), and "Christian AC" (a softer type of contemporary Christian music). Some stations play only "hot AC", "soft AC", or only one of the variety of subgenres. Therefore, it is not usually considered a specific genre of music; it is merely an assemblage of selected songs from artists of many different genres.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Adult contemporary traces its roots to the 1960s easy listening format, which adopted a 70—80% instrumental to 20–30% vocal mix. A few offered 90% instrumentals, and a handful were entirely instrumental. The easy listening format, as it was first known, was born of a desire by some radio stations in the late 1950s and early 1960s to continue playing current hit songs but distinguish themselves from being branded as "rock and roll" stations. "Billboard" first published the Easy Listening chart July 17, 1961, with 20 songs; the first number one was "Boll Weevil Song" by Brook Benton. The chart described itself as "not too far out in either direction".


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Initially, the vocalists consisted of artists such as Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, Connie Francis, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, and others. The custom recordings were usually instrumental versions of current or recent rock and roll or pop hit songs, a move intended to give the stations more mass appeal without selling out. Some stations would also occasionally play earlier big band-era recordings from the 1940s and early 1950s.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: After 1965, differences between the Hot 100 chart and the Easy Listening chart became more pronounced. Better reflecting what middle of the road stations were actually playing, the composition of the chart changed dramatically. As rock music continued to harden, there was much less crossover between the Hot 100 and Easy Listening chart than there had been in the early half of the 1960s. Roger Miller, Barbra Streisand and Bobby Vinton were among the chart's most popular performers.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: One big impetus for the development of the AC radio format was that, when rock and roll music first became popular in the mid-1950s, many more conservative radio stations wanted to continue to play current hit songs while shying away from rock. These middle of the road (or "MOR") stations also frequently included older, pre-rock-era adult standards and big band titles to further appeal to adult listeners who had grown up with those songs.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Another big impetus for the evolution of the AC radio format was the popularity of easy listening or "beautiful music" stations, stations with music specifically designed to be purely ambient. Whereas most easy listening music was instrumental, created by relatively unknown artists, and rarely purchased (especially as singles, although Jackie Gleason's beautiful music albums sold well in the 1950s), AC was an attempt to create a similar "lite" format by choosing certain tracks (both hit singles and album cuts) of popular artists.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: By the late 1960s hard rock had been established as one of the rock genres leading hard rock and soft rock to became distinct popular forms in the rock scene, and as major radio formats in the US. Soft rock was often derived from folk rock, using acoustic instruments and putting more emphasis on melody and harmonies. Major artists included Carole King, Cat Stevens, James Taylor and Bread.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: In the early 1970s, softer songs by The Carpenters, Anne Murray, John Denver, Barry Manilow, and even Streisand, began to be played more often on "Top 40" radio. Top 40 radio stations played the Top 40 hits regardless of genre. As the texture of much of the music played on Top 40 radio began to soften, the Hot 100 and Easy Listening/AC charts became more similar. Easy Listening radio began playing songs by artists who had begun in other genres, such as rock and roll or R&B. Much of the music recorded by singer-songwriters such as Diana Ross, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Carole King and Janis Ian got as much, if not more, airplay on AC stations than on Top 40 stations. AC stations also began playing softer songs by Elvis Presley, Linda Ronstadt, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, and other rock-based artists. Soon after, the adult contemporary format began evolving into the sound that later defined it, with rock-oriented acts as Chicago and the Eagles, becoming associated with the format. In addition, several early disco songs, did well on the Adult Contemporary format.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Soft rock reached its commercial peak in the mid-to-late 1970s with acts such as Toto, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Air Supply, Seals and Crofts, Dan Fogelberg, America and the reformed Fleetwood Mac, whose "Rumours" (1977) was the best-selling album of the decade. By 1977, some radio stations, notably New York's WTFM and NBC-owned WYNY, and Boston's WEEI, had switched to an all-soft rock format. As "Softrock 103", WEEI was famous for its promotional campaigns, featuring slogans such as "Joni, without the baloni." and "The Byrds, without the nyrds." However, different forms of popular music targeted to different demographic groups, such as disco vs. hard rock, began to emerge in the late-1970s. This led to specialized radio stations that played specific genres of music, and generally followed the evolution of artists in those genres.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: On April 7, 1979, the Easy Listening chart officially became known as Adult Contemporary, and those two words have remained consistent in the name of the chart ever since. Adult contemporary music became one of the most popular radio formats of the 1980s. The growth of AC was a natural result of the generation that first listened to the more "specialized" music of the mid-late 1970s growing older and not being interested in the heavy metal and rap/hip-hop music that a new generation helped to play a significant role in the Top 40 charts by the end of the decade.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Mainstream AC itself has evolved in a similar fashion over the years; traditional AC artists such as Barbra Streisand, the Carpenters, Dionne Warwick, Barry Manilow, John Denver, and Olivia Newton-John found it harder to have major Top 40 hits as the 1980s wore on, and due to the influence of MTV, artists who were staples of the Contemporary Hit Radio format, such as Richard Marx, Michael Jackson, Bonnie Tyler, George Michael, Phil Collins, Laura Branigan and Journey began crossing over to the AC charts with greater frequency. Collins has been described by AllMusic as "one of the most successful pop and adult contemporary singers of the '80s and beyond". However, with the combination of MTV and AC radio, adult contemporary appeared harder to define as a genre, with established soft-rock artists of the past still charting pop hits and receiving airplay alongside mainstream radio fare from newer artists at the time.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: The amount of crossover between the AC chart and the Hot 100 has varied based on how much the passing pop music trends of the times appealed to adult listeners. Not many disco or new wave songs were particularly successful on the AC chart during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and much of the hip-hop and harder rock music featured on CHR formats later in the decade would have been unacceptable on AC radio.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Although dance-oriented, electronic pop and ballad-oriented rock dominated the 1980s, soft rock songs still enjoyed a mild success thanks to Sheena Easton, Amy Grant, Lionel Richie, Christopher Cross, Dan Hill, Leo Sayer, Billy Ocean, Julio Iglesias, Bertie Higgins, and Tommy Page. No song spent more than six weeks at No. 1 on this chart during the 1980s, with nine songs accomplishing that feat. Two of these were by Lionel Richie, "You Are" in 1983 and "Hello" in 1984, which also reached No. 1 on the Hot 100.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: In 1989, Linda Ronstadt released "Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind", described by critics as "the first true Adult Contemporary album of the decade", featuring American soul singer Aaron Neville on several of the twelve tracks. The album was certified Triple Platinum in the United States alone and became a major success throughout the globe. The Grammy Award-winning singles, "Don't Know Much" and "All My Life", were both long-running No. 1 Adult Contemporary hits. Several additional singles from the disc made the AC Top 10 as well. The album won over many critics in the need to define AC, and appeared to change the tolerance and acceptance of AC music into mainstream day to day radio play.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: The early 1990s marked the softening of urban R&B in the shape of new jack swing, at the same time alternative rock emerged and traditional pop saw a significant resurgence. This in part led to a widening of the market, not only allowing to cater to more niche markets, but it also became customary for artists to make AC-friendly singles. At the same time, the genre began adopting elements from hard rock as tastes were shifting towards louder music, while AC stations in general began playing more rock acts. "Softer" features such as light instrumental music (carried over from the beautiful music format—many AC stations carried the format until the early 1970s), new age songs and most pre-1964 artists were gradually phased out from AC radio throughout the early to mid-1990s.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Unlike the majority of 1980s mainstream singers, the 1990s mainstream pop/R&B singers such as All-4-One, Boyz II Men, Christina Aguilera, Backstreet Boys and Savage Garden generally crossed over to the AC charts. Latin pop artists such as Lynda Thomas, Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, Selena, Enrique Iglesias and Luis Miguel also enjoyed success in the AC charts.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: In addition to Celine Dion, who has had significant success on this chart, other artists with multiple number ones on the AC chart in the 1990s include Mariah Carey, Phil Collins, Michael Bolton, Bryan Adams, Whitney Houston and Shania Twain. Newer female Adult album alternative singer-songwriters such as Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Merchant, Jewel, Melissa Etheridge and Sheryl Crow also broke through on the AC chart during this time.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: In 1996, "Billboard" created a new chart called Adult Top 40, which reflects programming on radio stations that exists somewhere between "adult contemporary" music and "pop" music. Although they are sometimes mistaken for each other, the Adult Contemporary chart and the Adult Top 40 chart are separate charts, and songs reaching one chart might not reach the other. In addition, hot AC is another subgenre of radio programming that is distinct from the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart as it exists today, despite the apparent similarity in name.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: In response to the pressure on Hot AC, a new kind of AC format cropped up among American radio recently. The "urban adult contemporary" format (a term coined by Barry Mayo) usually attracts a large number of African Americans and sometimes Caucasian listeners through playing a great deal of R&B (without any form of rapping), gospel music, classic soul and dance music (including disco).


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Another format, "rhythmic AC", in addition to playing all the popular hot and soft AC music, past and present, places a heavy emphasis on disco as well as 1980s and 1990s dance hits, such as those by Amber, and Black Box, and includes dance remixes of pop songs, such as the Soul Solution mix of Toni Braxton's "Unbreak My Heart".


title: Adult contemporary music

text: In its early years of existence, the smooth jazz format was considered to be a form of AC, although it was mainly instrumental, and related a stronger resemblance to the soft AC-styled music. For many years, George Benson, Kenny G and Dave Koz had all had crossover hits that were played on both smooth jazz and soft AC stations.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: During the 2000s, the AC market gained an increased presence in the music industry, as its radio formats were popular nationwide—Smooth jazz and "Urban AC" stations were ubiquitous in the East Coast, while Soft rock and "adult standards" stations were common in the Midwest, and pop-oriented "Hot AC" and "world music"/Hispanic AC stations were easily found in the West Coast and the "Sun Belt". This led to the presence of numerous genres on the AC charts, often crossing to the "pop" charts, winning over many critics in the need to define AC, and increased the tolerance and acceptance of AC music into mainstream day-to-day radio play.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Josh Groban's single "You Raise Me Up" and Michael Bublé's cover of "Fever" are often cited as key examples of the high production values and ballad-heavy sound that defined 2000s-era AC, often dubbed as "jazz-pop", heavily carrying classical, jazz and traditional pop influences. Artists such as Nick Lachey, James Blunt, Jamie Cullum, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Amy Winehouse and Susan Boyle also achieved great success during this period. During most of the 2000s, country music/countrypolitan musicians such as Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Billy Joel, Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes and Carrie Underwood scored hits on soft AC, particularly in Southern states. A popular trend in the late 1990s and 2000s was remixing dance music hits into adult contemporary ballads, especially in the US, (for example, the "Candlelight Mix" versions of "Heaven" by DJ Sammy, "Listen To Your Heart" by D.H.T., and "Everytime We Touch" by Cascada).


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Key to the success of AC in the 2000s was the 25–34 demographic which had outgrown the pop music offerings of the time, most new rock became too alternative and harsh for AC radio and most new pop was now influenced heavily by dance-pop, hip-hop and electronic dance music. At the same time, the music industry also began to focus on older audiences and markets generally considered "niche".


title: Adult contemporary music

text: During the late 2000s, certain pop songs began entering the AC charts instead, generally after having recently fallen off the Hot 100. Adrian Moreira, senior vice president for adult music for RCA Music Group, said, "We've seen a fairly tidal shift in what AC will play". Rather than emphasizing older songs, adult contemporary now began playing many of the same songs as top 40 and adult top 40, but only after the hits had become established. An article on MTV's website by Corey Moss describes this trend as: "In other words, AC stations are where pop songs go to die a very long death. Or, to optimists, to get a second life." As adult contemporary has long characterized itself as family-friendly, "clean" versions of pop songs began appearing on the AC chart, as were the cases of "Perfect" by P!nk, and "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green, both in 2011.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: AC radio's shift into more mainstream pop was a result of the changes on the broadcasting landscape following the 2005–2007 economic downturn and eventual recession, as advertisers preferred more profitable chart-based formats, which meant the demise of many AC-based formulas, primarily those aimed at older audiences, with tastes changing towards more modern music among all age groups. Diminishing physical record sales throughout the 2010s also proved a major blow to the AC genre, and there are concerns that the portable people meter, a device being used to determine radio listenership, may be incompatible with AC songs and may not accurately pick up that a person is listening to an AC station because of the pitches and frequencies used in the style.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Key AC artists of the early to mid-2010s included Bruno Mars, Coldplay, Adele, Arcade Fire, Meghan Trainor, Maroon 5 and Ed Sheeran, featuring a more pop-influenced, uptempo style than the typical AC fare of previous years, also featuring production values reminiscent of the Motown sound and the so-called Wall of Sound that dominated the soul-heavy pop charts of the early 1960s, when the Easy Listening chart was first introduced. The earlier years of the decade also saw alternative and indie rock acts such as Wilco, Feist, The 1975, Imagine Dragons, Mumford & Sons, Of Monsters and Men and The Lumineers quickly becoming AC mainstays, although these were eventually replaced by rhythm-based rock bands such as Panic at the Disco, Neon Trees X Ambassadors, Sheppard, Bastille, American Authors, Fitz and the Tantrums, Foster the People, Twenty One Pilots, Walk the Moon and Milky Chance.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: During the middle of the decade, newer artists such as CeeLo Green, OneRepublic, Rachel Platten, Christina Perri, Andy Grammer, James Bay, Sara Bareilles, Shawn Mendes, Sia, Sam Smith, Gavin Degraw, Charlie Puth and Colbie Caillat as well as acts that were popular in the 1990s and early 2000s such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were added to the rotation of most AC stations.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: As trap music and similar styles of hip-hop began dominating top 40 stations during the last years of the 2010s, AC stations began picking up rhythmic artists like Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Ellie Goulding, Taio Cruz and Pitbull as well as EDM artists like Avicii, Daft Punk, Calvin Harris, David Guetta and Tiesto. Meanwhile, younger artists like Camila Cabello, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Nick Jonas and the Jonas Brothers and Halsey began to be featured on AC stations more than on top 40 stations.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: In radio broadcasting, adult contemporary is divided into several sub-formats, each with their own musical direction and demographic targeting. Hot adult contemporary formats generally feature an uptempo rotation of recent hits that appeal to a wide adult audience. A station formatted as "adult contemporary" with no qualifier, also referred to as "mainstream adult contemporary", generally has a similar playlist to hot AC stations, but with a broader rotation of classic hits from past decades.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Soft adult contemporary formats have a more conservative sound oriented primarily towards adult women, urban AC focuses on R&B and soul music that appeal to African American adults, and rhythmic AC focuses on dance music and other rhythmic genres.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: "Hot adult contemporary" (hot AC) radio stations play a wide range of the present day's popular music that appeals towards the 18–54 age group; it serves as a middle ground between the youth-oriented contemporary hit radio (CHR) format, and adult contemporary formats (such as "mainstream" and soft AC) that are typically targeted towards a more mature demographic. They generally feature uptempo hit music with wide appeal, such as pop and pop rock songs, while excluding more youth-oriented music such as hip-hop. Recurrents usually reflect familiar and youthful music that adults had grown up with. Likewise, mature material from pop acts such as the Backstreet Boys, Jason Mraz, John Mayer, and Pink have also been prominent within the format.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: The "hot AC" designation began to appear in the 1990s, to describe adult contemporary stations with a more energetic presentation and uptempo sound than their softer counterparts. An early example of the format, Houston's KHMX "Mix 96.5", climbed from 14th place in the market to 3rd in the six months after its launch. The station's format and branding was widely replicated by other stations. Many hot AC outlets are among the top stations in their respective market.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Initially focused more on pop rock, the format has evolved to reflect changes in the composition of this audience; by the mid-2000s, the format had evolved to include more uptempo pop music, while alternative and indie rock crossovers (such as Foster the People, Imagine Dragons, Lovelytheband, and Twenty One Pilots) became more prevalent within the format during the 2010s.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: These developments helped to expand the popularity of the format among younger listeners such as millennials; Nielsen Audio ranked hot AC as the third most-popular format among millennials, behind pop and country music. Of the format's expanding demographic reach, WOMX-FM program director Dana Taylor stated that hot AC stations "may not be the radio station that everybody agrees on, but it's a radio station that everybody goes, 'I'm okay with that'." The increasingly downtempo direction of pop hits in the mid-to-late 2010's also helped to attract additional listeners.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Hot AC stations typically keep a larger body of recent hits in rotation than those with rigid, chart-driven formats like CHR and urban contemporary. As these stations' playlists have become concentrated towards airing only the current hits at a given time, hot AC airplay can build and sustain a song's popularity over a long-term period. This effect has been credited in helping build an audience for early singles from new acts such as Adele, Rachel Platten ("Fight Song", which gained prominence for its use during Hillary Clinton's 2016 US presidential election campaign), and Max Schneider (whose 2016 single "Lights Down Low", over a year after its original release, became a sleeper hit on the "Billboard" Mainstream Top 40 and Hot 100 due in part to strong hot AC airplay).


title: Adult contemporary music

text: The popularity of the hot AC format prompted many mainstream AC stations to add uptempo music to their playlists, while still maintaining a deeper rotation of older hits than hot AC stations.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: "Modern adult contemporary" refers to AC formats with a stronger lean towards modern rock and pop rock.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: In the 1990s and early 2000s, modern AC was typically targeted towards women, with Mike Marino of KMXB in Las Vegas describing the format as reaching "an audience that has outgrown the edgier hip-hop or alternative music but hasn't gotten old and sappy enough for the soft ACs." The format typically focused on female rock acts such as Shawn Colvin, Sheryl Crow, Indigo Girls, Jewel, and Sarah McLachlan, and folk rock-influenced bands such as Counting Crows and The Wallflowers. Today, the format is fairly uncommon, with KTCZ in the Minnesota Twin Cities being one of the few modern AC stations left.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: The "Soft adult contemporary" format typically targets women 25–54 and at-work listening. Soft AC playlists are generally conservative in comparison to hot AC, focusing on pop and power ballads, soft rock, and other familiar, light hits. Upon its establishment in the 1980s, the soft AC format was positioned as being a more upbeat version of easy listening that would appeal better to a younger audience, mainly by excluding instrumental beautiful music. Easy listening stations had begun shifting to the format out of concern that their existing programming would not appeal to the current generation of listeners.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: In a 1990 article, James Warren of the "Chicago Tribune" characterized soft AC stations as being "as middle-of-the-road and unthreatening as modern media get", with personalities that were encouraged to be as inoffensive and "low-profile" as possible, and a more conservative music library than hot AC-leaning stations. In particular, Chicago's WLIT did not have its airstaff talk over the beginning and endings of songs (in contrast to the hot AC-leaning WFYR), and played Bob Seger's "We've Got Tonite" but not "Old Time Rock and Roll" (which was part of WTMX's playlist). The director of a soft AC station in Connecticut, WEZN-FM, told Warren that he had barred the reading of top-of-hour news headlines, so that listeners wouldn't be tempted to tune away to an all-news station to learn more.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Soft AC stations tend to be more selective in their music libraries than other adult contemporary stations, preferring proven songs over current hits. Upon the onset of the format's popularity, core artists typically included singers such as Nat King Cole, Perry Como, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, Johnny Mathis, and Barbra Streisand. By the 1990s, to improve their appeal among changing demographics, some soft AC stations began to widen their playlist to include selections from contemporary acts with 80s, & 90s, musicians & bands such as Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Roxette, Mariah Carey, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Elton John, Cher, Whitney Houston, Journey, and Queen. On the other hand, by 1996, New York's WLTW had begun to phase out its softer music in favor of a more uptempo direction.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: In 2017, "Inside Radio" reported that soft AC had the third-largest decrease in US stations offering the format over the past decade (at 128), ranking behind only adult standards and oldies—a shift credited to aging demographics and a major boom in the wider-appealing classic hits format (which saw the largest overall increase over the same period). Consultant Gary Berkowitz argued that the soft AC format had become increasingly irrelevant in comparison to mainstream and hot AC, due to PPM markets preferring uptempo music.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: At the same time, however, soft AC began to experience a resurgence. In April 2016, iHeartMedia flipped its San Francisco classic soul station KISQ to soft AC as "The Breeze"; as of November 2018, it was the top station in the Bay Area. The trend continued into 2017 and 2018, with iHeartMedia extending its "Breeze" brand to other soft AC flips, and the brand (among others) being adopted by competitors such as Entercom. Industry analyst Sean Ross argued that older demographics were becoming more lucrative due to changes in listening habits among younger audiences, which prefer digital platforms such as music streaming services over linear terrestrial radio, and also noted how mainstream AC was dependent on the Top 40 charts to break new songs.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Current soft AC stations have continued to feature recurrents such as Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Hall & Oates, and Whitney Houston, while contemporary musicians such as Adele and Michael Bublé have also become modern fixtures of the format. In addition, the soft AC sound has diversified to include more songs that are "safe and universal" and not necessarily "soft", with Ross presenting Examples such as Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)", as well as the retroactively-defined genre of yacht rock. Over time, some stations have gradually adjusted their playlists to include more recurrents from the 1980s and 1970s (although not to the same extent as other "soft oldies" formats, such as "MeTV FM", which have also grown in popularity).


title: Adult contemporary music

text: The "Urban adult contemporary" format focuses primarily on current and classic R&B and soul music, The format typically targets African-American adults: July 2018 numbers from Nielsen Audio recorded it as the top format among African-Americans 25–54 and 35–64. It also has a sizable popularity among younger listeners, ranking behind urban contemporary as the second-most popular format among African-American adults 18–34 in the same report, with an 18.9 audience share.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: The format typically excludes youthful rhythmic music, such as commercial hip-hop and rap, that are usually associated with the urban contemporary format. The urban AC format is also associated with the "quiet storm"—mellower R&B ballads and slow jams, often in a jazz-influenced style. The syndicated evening program "Keith Sweat Hotel" focuses specifically on such music.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: As urban contemporary stations prefer hit-driven hip-hop songs, labels typically service R&B songs to the urban AC format only. Some current R&B musicians have complained that this is an artificial divide that prevents them from reaching a wider, mainstream audience (citing the relatively smaller number of urban AC outlets in comparison to urban and rhythmic), even with attempts to give some singles a hip-hop-influenced sound to improve the potential for crossover appeal. Some acts have attempted to disassociate themselves from "R&B" to reduce the effect of this stigma, although streaming services have helped to expose R&B to a wider audience beyond urban AC radio.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: The "Rhythmic adult contemporary" format generally focuses on a variety of current and classic dance music, such as dance-pop, hip-hop, and R&B (often resembling a blend of the Classic hits and hot AC formats in practice). The exact composition of current and recurrent content can vary between stations, depending on local cultures and the heritage of rhythmic formats in the market, ranging from late-80s/early-90s dance hits (including latin freestyle), to disco and Motown. Rhythmic hot AC has also been used as a format, popularized by stations such as New York's WKTU.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: The "Smooth adult contemporary" format is a variant of the smooth jazz format that incorporates mainstream and/or urban adult contemporary songs; they are designed to appeal to a wider range of demographics than a straight smooth jazz format. Some smooth AC stations may limit their airplay of jazz instrumentals to those by better-known performers (such as Kenny G).


title: Adult contemporary music

text: "Contemporary Christian music" (CCM) has several subgenres, one being "Christian AC". "Radio & Records", for instance, lists Christian AC among its format charts. There has been crossover to mainstream and hot AC formats by many of the core artists of the Christian AC genre, notably Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Kathy Troccoli, Steven Curtis Chapman, Plumb, and more recently Big Daddy Weave, Casting Crowns, For King & Country, Lauren Daigle, MercyMe, and Newsboys.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Adult album alternative (also called adult alternative, adult alternative pop/rock, or AAA) features a heavier playlist than adult contemporary, which has much more conservative playlists. The playlist is more diverse as well, as it includes genres like folk, pop rock, indie rock, Americana, world music, jam band, blues, alternative country, and alternative rock. Heavy metal and rap music are typically avoided but are occasionally featured as well. Some adult alternative stations are focused on classic rock, blues, alternative country, and folk music while others are more focused on more modern alternative rock and indie rock.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Artists may draw from genres like jangle pop (like R.E.M., Crowded House, Barenaked Ladies, and Goo Goo Dolls), acoustic rock (like Jeff Buckley, Fiona Apple, and Jewel), or roots rock (like Sheryl Crow, Hootie and the Blowfish, Counting Crows, Train, and Dave Matthews Band). Heavier artists may be played on adult alternative stations and may draw from post-grunge (like Nickelback, Third Eye Blind, Collective Soul, and Foo Fighters) or power pop/pop punk (like Green Day, Panic! at the Disco, Smash Mouth, and Simple Plan), while artists like Carrie Underwood, Elton John, ZZ Top, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Ice Cube, Phil Collins, and Fleetwood Mac may also be featured and typically draw from genres like hip hop, pop, soft rock, and classic rock. However, these artists are considered adult contemporary or are not considered part of the adult alternative pop/rock genre.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Since the 1990s it has become common for many AC stations, particularly soft AC stations, to play primarily or exclusively Christmas music during the Christmas season in November and December. While these tend mostly to be contemporary seasonal recordings by the same artists featured under the normal format, most stations will also air at least some vintage holiday tunes from older pop, MOR, and adult standards artists – such as


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Boney M., The Carpenters, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Percy Faith, Mannheim Steamroller, Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and Andy Williams – many of whom would never be played on these stations during the rest of the year.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: These Christmas music marathons typically start a few weeks before Thanksgiving Day and end after Christmas Day, or sometimes extending to New Year's Day. Afterwards, the stations usually resume their normal music fare. Several stations begin the holiday format much earlier, at the beginning of November especially after Halloween. The roots of this tradition can be traced back to the beautiful music and easy listening stations of the 1960s and 1970s.


title: Adult contemporary music

text: Former syndicated programming includes Dick Clark's US Music Survey (1996–2005), Casey's Hot 20/Casey's Countdown/American Top 20/10 (1992–2009) and Top 30 USA.


title: Past life regression

text: Past life regression is a method that uses hypnosis to recover what practitioners believe are memories of past lives or incarnations. The practice is widely considered discredited and unscientific by medical practitioners, and experts generally regard claims of recovered memories of past lives as fantasies or delusions or a type of confabulation. Past-life regression is typically undertaken either in pursuit of a spiritual experience, or in a psychotherapeutic setting. Most advocates loosely adhere to beliefs about reincarnation, though religious traditions that incorporate reincarnation generally do not include the idea of repressed memories of past lives.


title: Past life regression

text: The technique used during past-life regression involves the subject answering a series of questions while hypnotized to reveal identity and events of alleged past lives, a method similar to that used in recovered memory therapy and one that, similarly, often misrepresents memory as a faithful recording of previous events rather than a constructed set of recollections. The use of hypnosis and suggestive questions can tend to leave the subject particularly likely to hold distorted or false memories. The source of the memories is more likely cryptomnesia and confabulations that combine experiences, knowledge, imagination and suggestion or guidance from the hypnotist than recall of a previous existence. Once created, those memories are indistinguishable from memories based on events that occurred during the subject's life. Investigations of memories reported during past-life regression have revealed that they contain historical inaccuracies which originate from common beliefs about history, modern popular culture, or books that discuss historical events. Experiments with subjects undergoing past-life regression indicate that a belief in reincarnation and suggestions by the hypnotist are the two most important factors regarding the contents of memories reported.


title: Past life regression

text: In the 2nd century BC, the Hindu scholar Patañjali, in his Yoga Sutras, discussed the idea of the soul becoming burdened with an accumulation of impressions as part of the karma from previous lives. Patañjali called the process of past-life regression "prati-prasava" (literally "reverse birthing"), and saw it as addressing current problems through memories of past lives. Some types of yoga continue to use "prati-prasav" as a practice.


title: Past life regression

text: In the religious mythology of China the deity Meng Po, also known as the "Lady of Forgetfullness", prevents souls from remembering their past lives: she gives them a bittersweet drink that erases all memories before they climb the wheel of reincarnation.


title: Past life regression

text: Past life regression can be found in Jainism. The seven truths of Jainism deal with the soul and its attachment to karma. The fourth truth, Bandha, tells us that karma can stick to your soul. However, the seventh truth, Moksha, tells us that in order to be freed from the cycle of rebirth and death, one must separate karma from the soul. In order to find out what karma is attached to your soul, you can participate in “Jati-Smaran.” Jati-Smaran is remembering past lives


title: Past life regression

text: The nineteenth century saw the rise of Spiritualism, involving séances and other techniques for contacting departed spirits. Allan Kardec (1804–1869) sought to codify the lessons thus obtained in a set of five books, the "Spiritist Codification" (the"Spiritist Pentateuch", 1857–1868), including "The Spirits Book" (1857) and "Heaven and Hell" (1865) ; these books introduce concepts of how spirits evolve through a series of incarnations. Madame Blavatsky (1831–1891), co-founder of the Theosophical Society, introduced the Sanskrit term "Akasha", beginning in Isis Unveiled (1877) as a vague life force that was continuously redefined, always vaguely, in subsequent publications; separately, but also in Isis Unveiled, she referred to "indestructible tablets of the astral light" recording both the past and future of human thought and action. These concepts were combined into a single idea: the "Akashic records", espoused by Alfred Percy Sinnett in his book Esoteric Buddhism (1883). The idea that the "Akashic records" held past life data set the stage, whereby Western practitioners of the paranormal could sidestep the notion of forgetfulness that, in traditional teachings about reincarnation, had prevented memories of former lives from being accessed.


title: Past life regression

text: An early report for a human accessing past life information during a trance state comes from 1923, when Edgar Cayce, while answering questions posed by Arthur Lammers (publisher) in a trance state, spoke of Lammers' past lives and of reincarnation. The use of hypnosis for past life regressions is said to have been developed by A. R. (Asa Roy) Martin of Sharon, Pennsylvania, who published "Researches in Reincarnation and Beyond" in 1942.


title: Past life regression

text: In 1952 the Bridey Murphy case, in which housewife Virginia Tighe of Pueblo, Colorado, under hypnosis, was reported by the hypnotist to have recounted memories of a 19th-century Irish woman ("Bridey Murphy").


title: Past life regression

text: Past life regression is widely rejected as a psychiatric treatment by clinical psychiatrists and psychologists. A 2006 survey found that a majority of a sample of doctoral level mental health professionals rated "Past Lives" therapy as "certainly discredited" as a treatment for mental or behavioral disorders.


title: Past life regression

text: In the West, past-life regression practitioners use hypnosis and suggestion to promote recall in their patients, using a series of questions designed to elicit statements and memories about the past life's history and identity. Some practitioners also use bridging techniques from a client's current-life problem to bring "past-life stories" to conscious awareness. Practitioners believe that unresolved issues from alleged past lives may be the cause of their patients' problems. One technique for accessing memories from a past life is detailed in a study by Nicholas P. Spanos from Carleton University, Ontario, Canada. Subjects of a study were at first told that they would be undergoing a hypnosis, and afterwards told, “You are now in a different life, living in another life that you have lived before in another time. You are now reliving that other life that you lived once before in a different time.” Next, after the administer asks “What name can I call you by? I want you to look down and tell me what you are wearing. Describe everything you are wearing in detail. Where are you?” Afterwards, the subjects were to chronicle the information that they could remember after regression in a past life. Past life regression can be achieved in as little as 15 minutes, but to recall past a point of death, and into "soul memories", it takes upwards of 45 minutes of trance induction. However, with psychotherapy clients who believe in past lives, irrespective of whether or not past lives exist, the use of past lives as a tool has been suggested.


title: Past life regression

text: The "memories" recovered by techniques like past-life regression may be the result of cryptomnesia: narratives created by the subconscious mind using imagination, forgotten information and suggestions from the therapist. Memories created under hypnosis are indistinguishable from actual memories and can be more vivid than factual memories. The greatest predictor of individuals reporting memories of past lives appears to be their beliefs—individuals who believe in reincarnation are more likely to report such memories, while skeptics or disbelievers are less so.


title: Past life regression

text: Examinations of three cases of apparent past life regression (Bridey Murphy, Jane Evans, and an unnamed English woman) revealed memories that were superficially convincing. However, investigation by experts in the languages used and historical periods described revealed flaws in all three patients' recall. The evidence included speech patterns that were "...used by movie makers and writers to convey the flavour of 16th century English speech" rather than actual Renaissance English, a date that was inaccurate but was the same as a recognized printing error in historical pamphlets, and a subject that reported historically accurate information from the Roman era that was identical to information found in a 1947 novel set in the same time as the individual's memories, with the same name reported by the person regressed. Other details cited are common knowledge and not evidence of the factual nature of the memories; subjects asked to provide historical information that would allow checking provided only vague responses that did not allow for verification, and sometimes were unable to provide critical details that would have been common knowledge (e.g. a subject described the life of a Japanese fighter pilot during World War II but was unable to identify Hirohito as the Emperor of Japan during the 1940s).


title: Past life regression

text: Studies suggest that past lives are likely false memories, implanted through the susceptibility of the hypnotic method. A 1976 study found that 40% of hypnotizable subjects described new identities and used different names when given a suggestion to regress past their birth. In the 1990s, a series of experiments undertaken by Nicholas Spanos examined the nature of past life memories. Descriptions of alleged past lives were found to be extremely elaborate, with vivid, detailed descriptions. This, however, is not indicative of the validity of this therapeutic method. Subjects who reported memories of past lives exhibited high hypnotizability, and patients demonstrated that the expectations conveyed by the experimenter were most important in determining the characteristics of the reported memories. The degree to which the memories were considered credible by the experimental subjects was correlated most significantly to the subjects' beliefs about reincarnation and their expectation to remember a past life rather than hypnotizability. Spanos' research leads him to the conclusion that past lives are not memories, but actually social constructions based on patients acting "as if" they were someone else, but with significant flaws that would not be expected of actual memories. To create these memories, Spanos' subjects drew upon the expectations established by authority figures and information outside of the experiment such as television, novels, life experiences and their own desires. In sum, it is therefore suggested that past lives are likely false memories, implanted through the susceptibility of the hypnotic method.


title: Past life regression

text: Past life regression has been critiqued for being unethical on the premises that it lacks any evidence to support these claims, and that the act increases one's susceptibility to false memories. Luis Cordón states that this can be problematic as it creates delusions under the guise of therapy. The memories are experienced as vivid as those based on events experienced in one's life, impossible to differentiate from true memories of actual events, and accordingly any damage can be difficult to undo. As past life regression is rooted on the premise of reincarnation, many APA accredited organizations have begun to refute this as a therapeutic method on the basis of it being unethical. Additionally, the hypnotic methodology that underpins past life regression places the participant in a vulnerable position, susceptible to implantation of false memories. Because the implantation of false memories may be harmful, Gabriel Andrade points out that past life regression violates the principle of "first, do no harm" (non-maleficence).


title: The Happytime Murders

text: The Happytime Murders is a 2018 American adult puppet crime comedy film directed by Brian Henson and written by Todd Berger from a story by Berger and Dee Austin Robertson. The film stars Melissa McCarthy, Bill Barretta, Joel McHale, Maya Rudolph, Leslie David Baker, and Elizabeth Banks. Set in a world where humans and living puppets co-exist, the film follows a puppet private investigator and a human police detective who must solve a murder spree of retired sitcom stars.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: The film was first announced in 2008 by The Jim Henson Company, the production studio of Muppets creator Jim Henson. Various actors, including Cameron Diaz, Katherine Heigl and Jamie Foxx, were approached to star before McCarthy signed on in May 2017. Filming began in Los Angeles that September, and involved the use of over 120 puppets. "The Happytime Murders" was the first film released by Henson Alternative, a banner of The Jim Henson Company aimed toward adult audiences.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: "The Happytime Murders" was released on August 24, 2018, by STXfilms. It received mostly negative reviews from critics for its humor, performances and story, though the puppetry received praise. The film was a box-office bomb, grossing $27.5 million worldwide against a $40–47 million budget. The film received six nominations at the 39th Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, and Worst Actress for McCarthy who won that award.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: In a world where living puppets coexist with humans but are treated as second-class citizens, Phil Phillips was the first puppet cop on the LAPD before being fired. Now a private investigator with a human secretary Bubbles, he is hired by puppet client Sandra White to discover the identity of her blackmailer. Phil investigates a lead at a puppet-owned porn shop. While he checks their records in a back room, an attacker kills everyone else present, including Mr. Bumblypants, a former cast member of the beloved sitcom "The Happytime Gang"


title: The Happytime Murders

text: The LAPD arrives and Phil meets with his former partner Detective Connie Edwards. Twelve years prior, Edwards was being held at gunpoint by a puppet perpetrator. Phil tried to shoot him, but missed and hit an innocent puppet, killing him in front of his young daughter. Edwards testified against Phil and a law was enacted preventing puppets from becoming police officers. In the present, Edwards believes it was a robbery gone wrong. Phil believes it was murder, since no money was taken. That night, Phil's brother Larry "Shenanigans" Phillips, a former "Happytime Gang" cast-member, is torn apart when someone lets dogs onto his property. Afterwards, Phil reluctantly joins forces with Edwards to find the killer.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: The two track down former "Happytime Gang" cast-member Lyle in a puppet drug-den, where it is revealed that Phil saved Edwards by getting her an emergency puppet liver transplant. Lyle is killed in a drive-by shooting in front of Phil. After having sexual intercourse with Sandra and escaping the FBI, Phil goes to see Jenny, the only human "Happytime Gang" cast-member and his former girlfriend, at a puppet strip club where she works. Phil is unable to protect her when her car explodes. The police see Phil leaving the scene and believe him to be responsible for the murders.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: Phil hides at Edwards's apartment and they discover that former "Happytime Gang" member Goofer has apparently overdosed and drowned. They go to the house of the two remaining "Happytime Gang" members, Ezra and Cara, only to find their mangled bodies. The FBI arrives and detains Phil and Edwards. Phil is shown Sandra in an interrogation room. She reveals that she and Jenny are married and claims that Phil killed Jenny and the others to keep Sandra for himself.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: Edwards is suspended from duty and enlists Bubbles for help exonerating Phil. They break into Sandra's home and discover a hidden room containing plans for the deaths of the "Happytime Gang" stars and a frameup of Phil. Edwards notices a picture of the puppet Phil accidentally shot years ago, and realizes that Sandra is the daughter of the man he accidentally shot and is out for revenge against Phil. Bubbles sets off a booby trap, which ignites a fire destroying all the evidence. Afterwards, Edwards breaks Phil out of jail to stop Sandra.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: Phil and Edwards race to the airport, where Sandra is planning to escape with the sitcom's royalty money. Phil apologizes for killing her father, saying it has haunted him all the years since and asks why the "Happytime Gang" stars had to die. Sandra says she wanted Phil to suffer as payback. It is revealed that Jenny is alive, having faked her death, and is in cahoots with Sandra, but Sandra knocks Jenny out to take the money for herself after Phil reveals her true history. Sandra holds Edwards at gunpoint, putting her and Phil in the same position as twelve years before. Phil takes his shot and does not miss this time, killing Sandra.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: Edwards's police superior Banning arrives to congratulate Phil and Edwards on cracking the case. He restores Edwards to active duty and convinces the mayor to lift the ban on puppet cops, welcoming Phil back on the force. Phil asks Bubbles out on a date, which she accepts.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: Announced in 2008 as being in development at The Jim Henson Company, serving as the company's first film to receive an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, the film was picked up two years later by Lionsgate with a targeted January 2011 start date. At the time, Cameron Diaz had been offered a lead role in the film. Diaz dropped out and Katherine Heigl entered into talks to replace her.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: In July 2015, it was announced that STX Entertainment had picked up the film rights to "The Happytime Murders" (Lionsgate having lost them) and put the film in active development, with script revisions by Erich and Jon Hoeber. In April 2016, Jamie Foxx entered negotiations to star in the film. In May 2017, it was revealed that Melissa McCarthy had signed on to star in the film instead, as well as to contribute minor, uncredited rewrites to the film's screenplay. This was followed by Maya Rudolph being added in August, and in September, Elizabeth Banks, puppeteer Bill Barretta and Joel McHale all officially joined the cast.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: Principal photography on the film began in Los Angeles, California, on September 11, 2017. The film had a production budget in the range of $40–47 million, with McCarthy paid between $10 and 17.5 million.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: There were a total of 125 puppets in the film with 40 created specifically for it. To accommodate the puppeteers, all of the sets were built up so that the puppeteers could stand on the floor, since their optimum way to operate the puppets is if they are standing with straight arms. Because the floor of the sets came up in pieces, the human actors had a margin to stay on their path. Visual effects supervisor Sam Nicholson said the film had many VFX challenges, specifying, "It's some of the most complex work that we've ever done because, in one shot you could have a combination of principal photography done at 8K and then puppets on greenscreen being puppeteered by four puppeteers for each puppet. So if you have, say, six puppets in a scene, you've got 24 puppeteers operating them, 15 voice actors voicing them and these are all people dressed in green suits. And then you have all the rod removal of those puppets, and then you have avatars or CG puppets that are standing right next to the real puppets."


title: The Happytime Murders

text: "The Happytime Murders" was released to cinemas by STX Entertainment on August 24, 2018. The film was originally scheduled for August 17, 2018, but was pushed back a week.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: The first official red-band trailer was released on May 18, 2018, with select screenings of "Deadpool 2."


title: The Happytime Murders

text: "The Happytime Murders" was released on Digital HD on November 20, 2018, and on DVD and Blu-ray on December 4, 2018, by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: "The Happytime Murders" has grossed $20.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $6.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $27.5 million, against a production budget of around $40 million.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: In the United States and Canada, "The Happytime Murders" was released alongside "A.X.L.", and was projected to gross $13–15 million from 3,225 theaters in its opening weekend. The film grossed $950,000 from Thursday night previews, better than the $700,000 made by McCarthy's "Life of the Party" three months prior. It went on to debut to $9.5 million, marking the lowest opening of McCarthy's career as a lead. It fell 54% in its second weekend to $4.4 million, finishing eighth.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, ""The Happytime Murders" wastes its intriguingly transgressive premise on a witless comedy that blindly pushes buttons instead of attempting to tell an entertaining story." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 27 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C−" on an A+ to F scale, the lowest of McCarthy's career as a lead, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an "awful" 58% overall positive score.


title: The Happytime Murders

text: "Entertainment Weekly" Chris Nashawaty gave the film a C+, stating that "the cognitive dissonance of kiddie characters dropped into extremely adult situations should set off taboo sparks like they did in "" ... but mostly it feels like a promising idea poorly executed."


title: The Happytime Murders

text: In May 2018, Sesame Workshop, the organization behind the production of the television series "Sesame Street", filed a lawsuit against STX Productions for using their trademark in a film they have no involvement with, including the tagline "No Sesame, all Street". They alleged that associating a children's program with an adult comedy would smear the former's reputation as well as confuse individuals. In response, STX issued a statement indicating their persistence to keep the marketing for the film unchanged. On May 30, 2018, the lawsuit was rejected by the presiding judge for the case, with STX issuing a brief statement soon thereafter:


title: The Happytime Murders

text: Some subsequent television spots for the film made references to the lawsuit by starting the ads with "From the studio that was sued by "Sesame Street"...".


title: Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

text: Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo is a 1984 American dance musical film directed by Sam Firstenberg. It is a sequel to the 1984 breakdancing film "Breakin'". "Electric Boogaloo" was released seven months after its predecessor by TriStar Pictures. In some international locations the film was released under the title Breakdance 2: Electric Boogaloo. Another sequel, "Rappin'" (also known as "Breakdance 3") was made but had an unconnected plot and different lead characters – only Ice-T features in all three films.


title: Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

text: The three main dancers from "Breakin'" – Kelly "Special K" Bennett (Lucinda Dickey), Orlando "Ozone" Barco (Adolfo Quinones), and Tony "Turbo" Ainley (Michael Chambers) – struggle to stop the demolition of a community recreation center by a developer who wants to build a shopping mall. Viktor Manoel, Ice-T, Lela Rochon and Martika also appear as dancers.


title: Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

text: Like its predecessor, "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo" received mostly negative reviews from critics. "New York Press" film critic Armond White considered it to be "superb" and Roger Ebert gave the film a three out of four star rating. As of December 2017, Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rating of 29% based on 7 reviews.


title: Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

text: The film grossed $2,921,030 in its first 5 days starting December 21, 1984, playing at 717 theaters in the United States and Canada and went on to gross $15.1 million in the United States and Canada, less than half that of its predecessor.


title: Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

text: Like its predecessor, much of the film's soundtrack was provided by Ollie & Jerry, comprising the duo Ollie E. Brown and Jerry Knight. The title track, "Electric Boogaloo", reached number 45 on the R&B charts.


title: Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

text: On April 15, 2003, MGM Home Entertainment released "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo" as a bare-bones DVD. On April 21, 2015, Shout! Factory released the film, along with "Breakin"', as a double feature Blu-ray.


title: Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

text: The subtitle "Electric Boogaloo", originally a reference to a funk-oriented dance style of the same name, has entered the popular culture lexicon as a snowclone nickname to denote an archetypal sequel. The usual connotation is of either a ridiculous sequel title, or of the follow-up to an obscure or eclectic film (or other work). The band Five Iron Frenzy titled one of their albums "". The band Minus the Bear features the song "Get Me Naked 2: Electric Boogaloo" on the album "Highly Refined Pirates". An episode of the television show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" was titled "Chardee MacDennis 2: Electric Boogaloo". Other news articles and media have used the Electric Boogaloo subtitle, and it has also become an Internet meme. A documentary about the Cannon Group was released in 2014 called "" of which "Breakin'" and "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo" were featured.


title: Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

text: The term "boogaloo" on its own has become a slang term on the Internet beginning as early as 2012, coming to widespread attention in late 2019. Used by some far-right extremists to describe an uprising against the American government, the term originated from the idea that such a conflict would be, like the film, a "sequel" to the American Civil War; that is, "Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo". Groups subscribing to this ideology are considered to be a part of the boogaloo movement, and their members are often called "boogaloo boys".


title: Universal Plug and Play

text: Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a set of networking protocols that permits networked devices, such as personal computers, printers, Internet gateways, Wi-Fi access points and mobile devices to seamlessly discover each other's presence on the network and establish functional network services. UPnP is intended primarily for residential networks without enterprise-class devices.


title: Universal Plug and Play

text: The UPnP protocols were promoted by the UPnP Forum, a computer industry initiative to enable simple and robust connectivity to standalone devices and personal computers from many different vendors. The Forum consisted of more than 800 vendors involved in everything from consumer electronics to network computing. Since 2016, all UPnP efforts have been managed by the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF).


title: Universal Plug and Play

text: UPnP assumes the network runs Internet Protocol (IP) and then leverages HTTP, on top of IP, in order to provide device/service description, actions, data transfer and event notification. Device search requests and advertisements are supported by running HTTP on top of UDP (port 1900) using multicast (known as HTTPMU). Responses to search requests are also sent over UDP, but are instead sent using unicast (known as HTTPU).


title: Universal Plug and Play

text: Conceptually, UPnP extends plug and play—a technology for dynamically attaching devices directly to a computer—to zero-configuration networking for residential and SOHO wireless networks. UPnP devices are plug and play in that, when connected to a network, they automatically establish working configurations with other devices.


title: Universal Plug and Play

text: UPnP is generally regarded as unsuitable for deployment in business settings for reasons of economy, complexity, and consistency: the multicast foundation makes it chatty, consuming too many network resources on networks with a large population of devices; the simplified access controls don't map well to complex environments; and it does not provide a uniform configuration syntax such as the CLI environments of Cisco IOS or JUNOS.


title: Universal Plug and Play

text: The UPnP architecture allows device-to-device networking of consumer electronics, mobile devices, personal computers, and networked home appliances. It is a distributed, open architecture protocol based on established standards such as the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP), HTTP, XML, and SOAP. UPnP "control points" (CPs) are devices which use UPnP protocols to control UPnP "controlled devices" (CDs).


title: Universal Plug and Play

text: The UPnP architecture supports zero-configuration networking. A UPnP-compatible device from any vendor can dynamically join a network, obtain an IP address, announce its name, advertise or convey its capabilities upon request, and learn about the presence and capabilities of other devices. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS) servers are optional and are only used if they are available on the network. Devices can disconnect from the network automatically without leaving state information.


title: Universal Plug and Play

text: UPnP uses common Internet technologies. It assumes the network must run Internet Protocol (IP) and then uses HTTP, SOAP and XML on top of IP, in order to provide device/service description, actions, data transfer and eventing. Device search requests and advertisements are supported by running HTTP on top of UDP using multicast (known as HTTPMU). Responses to search requests are also sent over UDP, but are instead sent using unicast (known as HTTPU). UPnP uses UDP due to its lower overhead in not requiring confirmation of received data and retransmission of corrupt packets. HTTPU and HTTPMU were initially submitted as an Internet Draft but it expired in 2001; these specifications have since been integrated into the actual UPnP specifications.


title: Universal Plug and Play

text: UPnP uses UDP port 1900 and all used TCP ports are derived from the SSDP alive and response messages.


title: Universal Plug and Play

text: The foundation for UPnP networking is IP addressing. Each device must implement a DHCP client and search for a DHCP server when the device is first connected to the network. If no DHCP server is available, the device must assign itself an address. The process by which a UPnP device assigns itself an address is known within the UPnP Device Architecture as AutoIP. In UPnP Device Architecture Version 1.0, AutoIP is defined within the specification itself; in UPnP Device Architecture Version 1.1, AutoIP references IETF RFC 3927. If during the DHCP transaction, the device obtains a domain name, for example, through a DNS server or via DNS forwarding, the device should use that name in subsequent network operations; otherwise, the device should use its IP address.


title: Universal Plug and Play

text: Once a device has established an IP address, the next step in UPnP networking is discovery. The UPnP discovery protocol is known as the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP). When a device is added to the network, SSDP allows that device to advertise its services to control points on the network. This is achieved by sending SSDP alive messages. When a control point is added to the network, SSDP allows that control point to actively search for devices of interest on the network or listen passively to the SSDP alive messages of devices. The fundamental exchange is a discovery message containing a few essential specifics about the device or one of its services, for example, its type, identifier, and a pointer (network location) to more detailed information.


title: Universal Plug and Play

text: After a control point has discovered a device, the control point still knows very little about the device. For the control point to learn more about the device and its capabilities, or to interact with the device, the control point must retrieve the device's description from the location (URL) provided by the device in the discovery message. The UPnP Device Description is expressed in XML and includes vendor-specific manufacturer information like the model name and number, serial number, manufacturer name, (presentation) URLs to vendor-specific web sites, etc. The description also includes a list of any embedded services. For each service, the Device Description document lists the URLs for control, eventing and service description. Each service description includes a list of the commands, or "actions", to which the service responds, and parameters, or "arguments", for each action; the description for a service also includes a list of variables; these variables model the state of the service at run time, and are described in terms of their data type, range, and event characteristics.


title: Universal Plug and Play

text: Having retrieved a description of the device, the control point can send actions to a device's service. To do this, a control point sends a suitable control message to the control URL for the service (provided in the device description). Control messages are also expressed in XML using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Much like function calls, the service returns any action-specific values in response to the control message. The effects of the action, if any, are modeled by changes in the variables that describe the run-time state of the service.