Review: The Music is Black, A British Story at the V&A East

A piano covered in graffiti played by the glamorous pianist of the 1950s Winifred Atwellthe first black British artist to top the UK charts; ladies Shirley BasseyBond’s dazzling gown worn for a performance of “Goldfinger” at the 2013 Academy Awards; the iconic Union Jack vest worn by the boundary-breaking rapper Storms during his headline set of Glastonbury 2019. Make your way through ‘Music is Black’ and you’ll come across some of the most visually striking and historically significant artefacts of modern British music history.

The exhibition, which opened in April, is the first at the new V&A Museum East, tthe East London-based branch of the prestigious South Kensington institution (think of him as a cute little brother). The Music is Black embarks on a comprehensive, ambitious tour of the history of black British music, tracing the emergence of eight unique genres created and developed in Britain: rock lovers, brit funk, 2 Tone, trip-hop, jungle, drum and bass, garage and UK grime. In addition to analyzing their cultural significance and the relationships between certain subcultures, the exhibition highlights the roots of these sounds in Jamaican sound system culture, jazz and traditional West African music.

“For black British music makers, this is a confirmation of their worth. It reiterates the importance of black music, but also how pristine black British music has been,” he says. Jacqueline Springerthe main curator of the exhibition. Her background as a music reporter and academic led her to a date of the early 1900s, which she defines as “when the mass media galloped into modernity (with the creation of the radio) … it provided a relatively immediate way to tell you what had happened in the world, and you could further intonate and disseminate these prejudicial structures through this new media.”

To set the context for 20th- and 21st-century black British musical innovation, Springer and her collaborators decided to begin the experience with a room that captures powerful moments from the first centuries of contact between Europeans and West Africa, beginning in the 1400s. Upon entering The Music is Black, visitors are given an over-the-ear headset that is programmed to play different music in different parts of the exhibition. You can stay with a certain piece of music for as long as you want, revisit what stuck with you, or enter a neutral zone if you need some peace and quiet; the fluid nature of the technology means Music is Black is a vivid and engaging experience, but one that you’re in control at all times.

Sonically, Act One begins with a tense, ethereal landscape that grabs you as you witness disturbing and highly influential old documents, such as the legal document signed by King Charles II in 1672 legalizing the trade of enslaved people along the West African coastline. This introductory section is kept short and is all the more powerful for it, this history of violence and oppression lending additional weight to the narratives of resistance and innovation that follow.

“Music moves on, and the oppressed and the misrepresented always come through, and that’s one of the continuing triumphs of black music,” says Springer, whose mission was to connect the dots among hundreds of different, centuries-long stories of creativity and resilience under the continuing influence of the British colonial project. Walking around, you’re encouraged to draw your own connections, too: between the pioneering Jamaican jazz guitarist Ernest Ranglin‘s arrival in England and the creation of the 2 Tone ska movement in the late 1970s, for example, or, if you’re a bad music nerd (like me), the relationship between legendary Welsh singer Shirley Bassey and 21st century grime producer. DJ Spooky (The “Goldfinger” brass sampling instrument is a cult classic).

Building on the work of the exhibition and providing an opportunity to highlight the abundance of creators not featured within the walls of the V&A East, a companion book written by Springer and also entitled ‘Music is Black’ has been published and an extensive program of talks and live music events has been developed both at the museum and at the nearby East Bank site (w four-weekend festival from June to September). In addition, there is a partnership with BBC which provides greater education for British children on black British music history through BBC Bitesize, as well as streaming relevant documentaries on BBC iPlayer.

Few exhibitions in the UK encourage the development of this kind of wider cultural world. According to the artistic director of the V&A East Gus Casely-HayfordThe Music is Black aims to reshape the perception of British music both on these shores and abroad, illustrating how “this is our story and it is one of our major contributions to the world”. It’s not just about developing culture and touching people emotionally; Recent research suggests that black music accounts for 80 per cent of the money generated by the UK industry in the last 30 years, and exhibitions like this show that this fact is finally gaining wider recognition.

“It’s deeply moving that (the exhibit) has rippled, has this ripple effect. But this is black music,” Springer adds. “It suits me that there is so much enthusiasm and the scale of it is beyond my expectations. That’s good because it reiterates how important this is.”

More exhibition reviews