As Beyoncé's unprecedented performance at the Country Music Awards showed us, R&B continues to be the heart pumping blood into American music – but the genre has never seen more curious days. Anderson Paak and Dawn Richard expanded into new regions of earth and space; veteran artists like Alicia Keys and Blood Orange joined a new charge that could no longer be apolitical;
This article originally appeared on www.rollingstone.com: 20 Best R&B Albums of 2016