British Library opens Black British music exhibition

An exhibition exploring the musical journey of African and Caribbean people in Britain opens on 26 April at the British Library in London.

Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music runs until 26 August, and features more than 200 exhibits, many of which are being displayed in public for the first time. There are also a series of artworks and films created by artists and community collectives from Cardiff, Birmingham, London and Leeds.

“Collaboration has been at the heart of this project – we have worked with a number of organisations across the UK,” said Aleema Gray, the lead curator of Beyond the Bassline. “We have also got a fully commissioned piece that speculates on the future of Black British music, specifically looking at the relationship between black music and reparations.”

The exhibition, a collaboration between the British Library and the Black Music Research Unit at the University of Westminster, presents music as a form of entertainment and vehicle for community, but also as a source of liberation, protest and education.

“The exhibition is really a conversation moving through time and space,” Gray said. “It’s a conversation thinking about the role of Black British music on society, culture and politics.”

Mykaell Riley, a founder member of the British roots reggae band Steel Pulse, and the director of the Black Music Research Unit is the guest curator of Beyond the Bassline.

“The music celebrated in this exhibition is more than a collection of sounds – it is a living history, echoing through the centuries,” Riley said. “It is an ode to the spirit of community and the radical force of alternative Black British music genres such as jungle, drum and bass, grime and Afrobeats.

“We hope the exhibition electrifies, provokes, and, most importantly, energises and inspires continued exploration into this essential facet of British cultural heritage.”

Objects featured in the exhibition include Stormzy’s signed set list for his iconic Glastonbury performance in 2019 and the bottle of champagne he toasted with to celebrate being the first solo Black British musician to headline the festival. 

Visitors can also see a trilby, shirt and scarf from Pauline Black, lead singer of two-tone band The Selecter, and Dennis Bovell’s 1970s Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, which was pivotal in his band Matumbi’s sound, and played on lovers’ rock anthem, Silly Games by Janet Kay. 

Beyond the Bassline is supported by a series of talks and musical performances at the British Library, including performance by Soul II Soul, Linton Kwesi Johnson, George the Poet and the Ezra Collective.

There will be Beyond the Bassline panel displays and events at over 30 local libraries across the UK, arranged through the Living Knowledge Network, with each library’s collection, regional connections and local music scene at the core, to help tell a national story about Black music in Britain.  

The British Library is home to one of the largest collections of sound recordings in the world.