R&B as a genre has evolved far beyond its mid-20th century origins in North American Black creative communities to become a global lingua franca for contemporary musicians working across every inhabited continent, with regional scenes emerging that adapt the genre’s core creative impulses to fit the specific cultural priorities and creative networks of their home countries. This global spread has allowed R&B to take root in places that might seem unexpected to casual audiences, but in many regions, the genre has grown to become one of the most vital and consistently innovative spaces for popular music creation, supporting entire ecosystems of creators, industry workers, and audiences that sustain work for years on end.