Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, and, on occasion, Caribbean music such as reggae and reggaeton. Urban contemporary was developed through the characteristics of genres such as R&B and Soul.

The term "urban contemporary" has become heavily associated with African American Music and Latino music as well, particularly for the African Americans contemporary R&B. For the Latinos the music is more Latin urban like Reggaeton.

These stations focus primarily on marketing to African-Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 but studies have shown that about 75% of listeners are White. Also there has been a sizable amount of Asian American and Hispanic listening to the format as well. Their playlists are dominated by singles by top-selling hip hop and R&B performers. On occasion, an urban contemporary station will play classic soul music songs from the '70s and early '80s to satisfy the earlier end of the genre