V&A East announce their debut exhibition, The Music Is Black: A British Story

Spanning 1900 to the present day (over 125 years), the exhibition will feature long-overdue stories behind early 20th Century pioneers, international music tastemakers and today’s groundbreaking artists, including Stormzy, Sampha, Little Simz, Jorja Smith, Ezra Collective and more. It will take visitors into the heart of music making, from Carnival to basements, dancefloors, and club nights, recording studios and record shops, MC battles, festivals, and more.

The exhibition will also explore the impact that East London has had on Black British Music, from Jammer’s legendary basement to record shop Rhythm Division. It will also celebrate the broad spectrum of international music that were Anglicised by Black British artists to form UK Rap, Nu Classic Soul, Dubstep, Afrobeats, and UK Drill, and will look to award-winning home-grown talent lighting up the international stage from Slick Rick, Monie Love and Estelle to Floetry, Labrinth, FKA Twigs, and more.

Gus Casely-Hayford, V&A East Director, said: “V&A East is dedicated to opening up new creative opportunities for all. The Music Is Black: A British Story will be a landmark show foregrounding multiple perspectives to tell a long-overdue story about the creation of our national sound and its impact on culture around the world."

As part of the exhibition, V&A East has commissioned a new film by Meeks & Frost – the directorial duo behind J Hus, Pa Salieu and Kojey Radical’s music videos. With a dynamic collage aesthetic and narrative bringing together different generations and Black British musical styles, cuts of the longer form film will drop over the coming months ahead of the full release in 2025.

The Music Is Black: A British Story 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 Black British 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.

V&A East Museum’s inaugural exhibition will inspire a season of collaborative programming across East Bank in 2025. The BBC, Sadlers Wells East, UAL’s London College of Fashion, and UCL East will join V&A East in bringing the themes of The Music Is Black: A British Story to life across Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – and beyond – with a series of special activities, events, displays and live performance.

Jacqueline Springer, Curator of The Music Is Black: A British Story and Curator of Africa and Diaspora Performance at the V&A, adds: “Music is the soundtrack to our lives, and one of the most powerful tools of unification. 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 versality 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.”