Alternative R&B
Alternative R&B is a style of R&B that swaps the genre's polished radio sound for moodier, more experimental production drawn from electronic, indie and hip hop music.
Typical tracks are slow and spacious, with hazy synthesizers, echoing production, unusual song structures and intimate vocals. The style began in the mid-2000s in the United States and Canada and came to wide notice in the early 2010s, helped by self-released mixtapes. Compared with mainstream contemporary R&B it is less concerned with big hooks and vocal showpieces and more with atmosphere and personal, sometimes bleak lyrics.
Artists it is known for: Frank Ocean, The Weeknd, SZA.
- Family
- R&B & Soul
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United States and Canada, mid-2000s
- Also called
- alt-R&B, PBR&B, indie R&B
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 20%
About 16,000 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have alternative r&b among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Alternative R&B artists
Malcolm Todd
Tinashe
Blood Orange
Doechii
Avenoir
Leon Thomas
Ms. Lauryn Hill
Ravyn Lenae
FKA twigs
Mariah the Scientist
The alternative r&b artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.