Stratford is a gateway. One of London\u2019s biggest transport interchanges, it\u2019s part of many people\u2019s daily commute. It\u2019s an entrance and exit, a point of transition; it\u2019s a space to pass through, and spot many people call home. Last year, V&A East laid down roots in Stratford \u2013 a stunning cultural coup for the area, it\u2019s latest exhibition may rank as one of the most important to open in London for some time.<\/p>\n
The Music Is Black: A British Story<\/strong> isn\u2019t a retrospective, it\u2019s an exploration of Black excellence, a platform for struggle, resilience, and joy. Curator Jacqueline Springer <\/strong>worked with her team for years to bring it all together \u2013 from ground-breaking classical composers to grime innovators, from folk guitarists and steel pan drum bands through to chart-crushing pop divas and crucial Lover\u2019s Rock innovators. It\u2019s all here \u2013 a bustling, exhaustive, inspiration waltz through 125 years of Black British music.<\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n \u201cWe start in 1900,\u201d she tells CLASH over Zoom. \u201cAnd that\u2019s fortuitous, because it brings with it the explosion of mass media, mass communication, through cinema, radio, and television. From a curatorial perspective, that brings an accelerated way of dissecting and understanding who you are, but it\u2019s all based off established ways in which global societies are viewed.\u201d<\/p>\n Very much a project that has seeped into the fabric of her being, Jacqueline has worked tremendously hard on every single detail within The Music Is Black: A British Story. It\u2019s a love letter to all kinds of phenomenal musicians, but it\u2019s also the story in which multiple threads of the Black diaspora came to know and express themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cFor more than three centuries \u2013 a very long, long time \u2013 the practice of competing for territory, and for trading and trafficking African men, women, and children was legal practise. And what that does to the cultures of those who were dispersed, who became acculturated to wherever they were taken. Brazil. The Caribbean. America.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat were are having people think about,\u201d she explains, \u201cis how the long past has an impact on the modern day.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the exhibition is vast, certain facets recur. Take the necessity of Black innovation, often utilisation broken or thrown away technology in a different way. The steel pan drum, for example, is simply an empty oil drum, beaten into shape by Caribbean communities. Elsewhere in the exhibition, you see Jme\u2019s SNES, which he used to create sound effects for his early grime productions. It\u2019s people separated by almost 100 years, displaying the same instinct and aptitude for innovation.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I spoke to artists,\u201d Jacqueline continues, \u201cI asked them to consider what object you feel best demonstrates how you create music. What was interesting, and tells us something about the power of media, is that several artists immediately knee-jerk said: I\u2019ve got some gold discs! But that just demonstrates the commercial calculation of your art.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t explain how art is made,\u201d she insists. \u201cArt is made under the cloud of the politics of the day, under the influence of your cultural, gendered, sexual, political identities\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n Often, it\u2019s the most humble details that prove to be the most profound. A Guy Called Gerald\u2019s<\/strong> Roland for example, or the adjustments to Joan Armatrading\u2019s<\/strong> guitar \u201cbecause her little hand had to stretch further than it actually needed to\u201d.<\/p>\n Refusing to restrict itself to genres more commonly recognised as Black, the exhibition moves from the baton utilised by Victoria composer and conductor Samuel Coleridge Taylor past the guitar loaned by the widow of mercurial guitarist Davy Graham, the mixed-heritage musician who almost single-handedly crafted the British folk guitar tradition.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so easy for things to be classified as underground,\u201d Jacqueline notes during one point of our conversation, \u201cbut the underground only exists due to marginalisation. We are all controlled by stratas and hierarchies, and yet music just gnaws through all that. It\u2019s the determination of musically talented people to just tell us: no, listen to this!\u201d<\/p>\n Running until January 2027, The Music Is Black is one of the year\u2019s must-see exhibitions. On one level, it brings into one place the full spectrum of Black British music excellence \u2013 stage costumes worn by Little Simz, for example, or the door sign for Hoxton\u2019s fabled Blue Note club, where Norman Jay hosted a residency, and Metalheadz helped brew up drum \u2018n\u2019 bass. But on another, it\u2019s a beautifully moving, frequently challenging discourse on the nature of this country.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way in which we dissect and stratify hierarchies, and create hierarchies, has an impact on how we see people. And the breadth of this exhibition \u2013 I hope \u2013 provides enough space in order for us to consider how we are all complicit in upholding this\u2026 but isn\u2019t it fantastic how art can challenge this?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou should walk out of her knowing more about yourself,\u201d she notes. \u201cI would really hope that people have a greater sense of awe about Black music makers, about what they travel through. These artists walk among us \u2013 how lucky we are on this damp island to have generated all these mushrooms of activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2014<\/p>\n The\u00a0Music\u00a0Is\u00a0Black: A British Story<\/strong> runs at V&A East, London until January 3rd, 2027. Tickets are available to purchase\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.clashmusic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Inside-VA-East-Museums-inaugural-exhibition-The-Music-is-Black-A-British-Story-\u00a9-David-Parry-for-the-VA-21-1024x683.jpg\")
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