Good news for East Londoners: V&A East finally has a date to open its doors, and we already have a close look at the first exhibition we’re looking forward to seeing. “The Music Is Black: A British Story” will be the V&A East Museum’s first exposition at East Bank, set to open in 2025. This landmark exhibition will reveal how Black British music has shaped British culture, and its global impact, telling a long-overdue story of Black excellence, struggle, resilience, and joy.
Spanning 1900 to the present day, The Music Is Black: A British Story will celebrate 125 years of Black music in Britain, taking visitors into the heart of music making, from Carnival to club nights, recording studios and record shops, MC battles, festivals, and more. With access to the BBC’s Archive, the exhibition will have a soundtrack spanning generations and an evocative set design. Visitors will hear directly from music makers, both centre stage and behind the scenes, to bring the story to life.
“Music is the soundtrack to our lives, and one of the most powerful tools of unification,” starts Jacqueline Springer, the exhibition’s curator. “It brings collective and individual joy as we recite song lyrics at festivals and gigs, recall dance moves perfected in childhood bedrooms, and mime to guitar breaks, bassline drops and instrumental flourishes with glee. Set against a backdrop of British colonialism and evolving social, political, and cultural landscapes, we will celebrate the richness and versatility of Black and Black British music as instruments of protest, affirmation, and creativity, and reveal the untold stories behind some of the world’s most popular music of all time.”
From early pioneers, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Winifred Atwell, Emile Ford and Janet Kay the exhibition will also highlight international music-makers including Joan Armatrading, Eddy Grant, Sade, Soul II Soul, Seal, Fabio & Grooverider, Goldie, Massive Attack and Tricky. It will also focus on the multi-talented artists of today, from Shabaka Hutchings to Kano, Little Simz, Jorja Smith, Nubya Garcia, Ezra Collective and more.
The exhibition will also address the social, historical, and cultural context behind Black music in Britain, which led to the creation of the UK’s most progressive musical genres from Brit Funk to Lovers Rock, 2 Tone, Jungle, Ragga, Drum & Bass, Trip Hop, UK Garage, Grime and beyond. Paintings, prints, playbills, and posters, sculpture, TV, fashion and textiles, photography and film, will all help tell a broader story of Black British music and its cultural impact beyond sound.
