Alternative R&B
| Alternative R&B | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Mid-2000s, United States and Canada |
| Other topics | |
Alternative R&B (also referred to as PBR&B, indie R&B, experimental R&B, and hipster R&B) is a term used by music journalists to describe a stylistic alternative to contemporary R&B.
"Alternative R&B" was once used by the music industry during the late 1990s to market neo soul artists, such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, and Maxwell. There has been a variety of discussion about the differing genre terms, with several critics describing the music under the broad category of "alternative R&B" or "indie R&B". The term "hipster R&B" has been commonly used, as has the term "PBR&B"—a combination of "PBR" (the abbreviation for Pabst Blue Ribbon, a beer most recently associated with the hipster subculture) and R&B. The first use of "PBR&B" was on Twitter by Sound of the City writer Eric Harvey on a March 22, 2011 post. Three years later, amazed and distressed at how far the term—meant as a joke—had traveled, Harvey wrote an extensive essay about it for Pitchfork.Slate suggests the name "R-Neg-B". The genre has sometimes been called "noir&B." However, the terms are often criticized for "pigeonholing" artists into hipster subculture and being used in a derisive manner.
Barry Walters of Spin characterizes the unconventional style as an "exchange between EDM, rock, hip hop and R&B's commercial avant-garde," and cites The Weeknd's Beauty Behind the Madness and Thursday, Miguel's Kaleidoscope Dream, Kelela's Hallucinogen, Holy Other's With U, Drake's Take Care and Kenna's Make Sure They See My Face are works associated with alternative R&B.
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