Alternative R&B (also referred to as alt-R&B, PBR&B, indie R&B, experimental R&B, hipster R&B, and emo R&B) is a term used by music journalists to describe a stylistic alternative to contemporary R&B. It is considered to be "more progressive and diverse" than its mainstream counterpart.

"Alternative R&B" was once used by the music industry during the late 1990s to market neo soul artists, such as D'Angelo, Aaliyah, 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", as a reference to "negging". 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.

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