V&A East Tells the Story of Black British Music

Summary<

• The V&A East Museum will host The Music is Black: A British Story, marking its inaugural exhibition
• The show will brings together over 200 artifacts and artworks celebrating 125 years of Black British music
• Features and appearances include the likes of Little Simz, Jorja Smith, Skepta, Sade and JME, alongside newly commissioned artworks by Frank Bowling and LR Vandy

From jungle and drum and bass to UK garage and grime, Black British music travelled far beyond home shores, making an indelible mark on the global sound stage. With the arrival of the new V&A East in Stratford, the museum’s inaugural exhibition sets out to chart the sounds and scenes that have come to shape this aspect of contemporary British life. Opening on April 18, The Music is Black: A British Story traces 125 years of sonic history in, as the museum described, “a celebration of resilience, creativity and joy.”

Spanning African musical traditions and colonial histories to 2 Tone, Brit funk, lovers rock and a slew of other genres loved by many today, the exhibition gathers more than 200 objects across fashion, instruments, photography, painting and sculpture, including 60 new additions to the V&A collection, and features appearances by a number of contemporary luminaries, like Little Simz, Jorja Smith, Skepta and JME.

Highlights include the Super Nintendo and Mario Paint game JME used for his early music experiments in the 1990s, before founding Boy Better Know, as well as a Comme des Garçons ensemble donned by Simz. Archival outfits worn by Sade, Janet Kay MBE and Carroll Thompson explore music’s sartorial side, while newly acquired photographs of Skepta, Mis-Teeq and Kemistry & Storm offer glimpses of life in the limelight.

The Music is Black will also foregrounds art’s kinship with sound, with works by Sonia Boyce, Olayinka Burney-Nicol, Denzil Forrester, Fowokan George Kelly, and Zak Ové, alongside new commissions by Frank Bowling and LR Vandy.

“Music reflects and feeds emotions,” said Jacqueline Springer, the exhibition curator. “It inspires, comforts, offends and entertains. It also awakens memory and punctuates our present. This exhibition provides another dimension in our celebration and understanding of how social and political histories are responded to by people and their cultures to provide the art we all enjoy.”

Check out V&A East’s website to secure your ticket today.

V&A East Museum
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park,
Stratford, London