The V&A East museum in Stratford has opened its inaugural exhibition, 'The Music is Black', a landmark survey of Black British music. Curated by Jacqueline Springer, the exhibition features 200 items spanning from early African drumbeats to contemporary pop and drill, encompassing genres such as jungle, grime, garage, and two-tone.
Springer, a former journalist turned academic and curator, spent three years assembling the collection, which includes permanent acquisitions and temporary loans like Pauline Black's outfit from the Selector. 'Institutionally, it’s an endorsement,' Springer said. 'The V&A has recognised that black music is worthy of this kind of coverage.'
The exhibition is part of a broader push to reposition Black British music as central to the UK's cultural history, according to V&A East's artistic director Gus Casely-Hayford. 'What happens so often is that British music is presented as important but marginal,' he said. 'What we have tried to do here is say this is our story, and it’s one of our major contributions to the world.'
The show follows other recent exhibitions on Black British music, including the British Library's 'Beyond the Bassline' and the Barbican's survey of Black London's musical landscape. However, Springer argues that 'The Music is Black' is 'writ large' in scope and scale, with items given the same institutional treatment as the V&A's blockbuster shows.
Outside the museum, the exhibition coincides with a cultural shift: the Mobo awards recently celebrated their 30th anniversary, Black acts dominated the Brits, and research indicates Black music accounted for 80% of UK industry revenue over the past 30 years. Despite criticism of the building's design and calls for living wages for museum workers, the exhibition has drawn large crowds.
