East London welcomes visitors to its latest cultural landmark, making its long-awaited debut: V&A East Muesum. With four years in the making, its inaugural exhibition The Music is Black: A British Story curated by Jacqueline Springer and research assistant Josephine Small tells the rich history of 125 years of Black music-making in Britain.
From gospel to grime, lovers rock to drum’n’bass, visitors are immersed into each genre as they walk through the. These genres are not squashed into rooms, they are brought to life through the immersive listening experience designed by XANA, and some original compositions by Bankey Ojo, with support from 3D sound pioneer usomo by FRAMED immersive projects.
Image Credits: Mis-Teeq, 2003, by Soulla Petrou
Music exists all around us and The Music is Black: A British Story showcases how these sounds travelled the world as the African and Caribbean diaspora expanded. Through celebrating pioneers of music movements, communities and cultural moments, the exhibition walks visitors through a concise recountal of Black British music and how the music grew and adapted.
The exhibition splits into four acts: Act one traces back to Africa’s musical origins before going through the history of enslavement and migration, Act two proceeds to move through the early 20th century showing how Black music continued to flourish amidst war and technological change and advancements, Act three hones in on the emergence of genres deriving directly from Black Britain before exploring contemporary sounds and the variety of artists across the African and Caribbean diaspora in Act four.
Young people are the ones who make culture, and each generation’s young people are spotlighted across the exhibition. The religious, political, genre-focused aspects of the exhibition don’t feel squashed into these rooms, they are laid out for visitors to take their time reading the stories on the walls while taking in the work in front of you.
When addressing the room with an introduction to the space, curator Jacqueline Springer emphasised, “Act three does not exist without act one. The political and active, the social, the political and the imported musicality.
Through the exhibition’s structure and artefacts, we will explore how sound cultivated from African indigeneity, adapted and rebelled against colonial era traumas and post-colonial politics to triumph in its global dissemination and influence to form the spine of contemporary, popular music in the West.
Black music is bigger than this exhibition.
This is not a Black music exhibition. This is about Black British music within a particular time frame, and Act four tells you more about the concurrency of Black music running alongside the timeline within Act three.”
The Music is Black: A British Story also pays an ode to the borrowed genres across the Black diaspora, not overlooking the influence jazz from America and reggae from the Caribbean had upon Black British people and their music.
Image Credits: DJ Paulette, 1992, by Daniel Newman
Visitors are stepping into a wealth of knowledge, with rare materials, musical instruments, intimate belongings from artists, both past and present, who helped shape Britain’s musical landscape today.
Fashion’s political influence is also highlighted throughout the exhibition. Designed by Banksy, the stab-proof vest worn by Stormzy during his headline set at Glastonbury 2019 can be seen, while across the room DJ Paulette’s sequined stagewear worn at the first anniversary of Manchester’s LGBTQ+ night Flesh at Haçienda catches your eye.
Many artists whose work is integral to Black British music history lent personal items to this exhibition. It was important that the exhibition reflected the wider UK. Springer shared:
“For artists outside of London, [they’d say they] never get asked [to showcase their work] and there were other artists who thought people don’t even consider them as making Black music because they make a particular kind of genre.
There’s a great level of emotion running through the curatorial process, and because some artists have never let these objects out of their homes they were suspicious as to how long we were going to hold on to them. Would we take care of them? And how they were gonna be summarised in 60 words.”
The exhibition is a reminder of how important archiving and documentation are to Black musicians and artists of all kinds. To be able to hold history and honour the research, music, fashion, words, artefacts that made Black British music what it is today is a privilege.
Through its immersive element visitors are encouraged to take their time going through the exhibition, working in sync to help you comprehend the important parts of history in front of you.
The Music is Black: A British Story is almost bigger than itself, but it shows just how rich Black music is, especially in Britain. It is now home to many important pieces of Black British music history.
The Music is Black: A British Story is at V&A East until 3 January 2027
Tickets Available HERE
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Words: Nicole Ndlova
Exhibition Photography: Henry Goodfellow