(August 21, 2026) Soul is the most-searched music genre in five US states and R&B in a further two, according to new research analysing Google search interest across 18 genres in every state in America.
The study, by ticket comparison site SeatPick, found soul finishing first in North Carolina, Alabama, Illinois, South Carolina and Virginia, while R&B tops Georgia and Delaware.
North Carolina is America’s soul capital with the maximum score of 100, and Georgia leads the country for R&B, also on 100. Leon Thomas is soul’s most-searched artist nationally and Chris Brown leads R&B, both at over 500,000 searches a month.
Six of the seven states sit in the South
The geography is the tightest of any genre on the map. North Carolina, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and Delaware form a near-continuous block along the Atlantic coast and the Deep South, the region where both genres developed.
Illinois is the exception, and a meaningful one. Soul beats pop there by three points, reflecting Chicago’s role in the genre’s history.
The soul states, and what soul beat
| State | Soul score | National rank for soul | Beat |
| North Carolina | 100 | 1st | R&B, by 17 |
| Alabama | 92 | 3rd | R&B, by 8 |
| Illinois | 88 | 5th | Pop, by 3 |
| South Carolina | 85 | 7th | R&B, by 4 |
| Virginia | 80 | 12th | R&B, by 1 |
Georgia tops R&B with a score of 100, ahead of Delaware on 89. In both states soul finishes second, at 86 and 84 respectively.
Gilad Zilberman, Co-Founder of SeatPick, says the gap between reputation and reality has real consequences for touring: “Promoters route tours on assumptions about where a genre belongs, and this data shows those assumptions are decades out of date. Wyoming and Montana are metal states. Maryland is a hip hop state. If you’re booking a tour on a map drawn in the 1990s, you’re skipping the places that are actually searching for you.”
Virginia was decided by a single point
Virginia is the narrowest result on the entire map. Soul scores 80 and R&B 79, a one-point gap and the closest margin recorded in any of America’s 51 states and territories.
Several neighbouring states were nearly as close. Delaware takes R&B by five points over soul, South Carolina takes soul by four over R&B, and Alabama by eight.
The two genres are close enough across the region that the map could reasonably be read as a single soul and R&B belt running from Delaware to Alabama.
Three more states search heavily for soul without topping it
- Mississippi ranks second in America for soul at 94, but is topped by gospel at 100.
- Louisiana ranks fourth at 91, topped by jazz.
- Maryland ranks tenth at 82, topped by hip hop.
Article provided to us by Seatpick
