The Music Is Black, V&A East
The Music Is Black, the inaugural exhibition at the newly opened V&A East, curated by Jacqueline Springer, takes audiences on a journey through sound. Tracing the story of the Black experience from its origins in Africa to the present day, the exhibition explores the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, the world after abolition, migration, the Black experience in Britain, the United States and beyond. Along the way it charts the extraordinary cultural impact of musical genres created by Black communities, from Lovers Rock, Two-Tone, Jungle, Drum and Bass, R&B and Grime to countless others, while also demonstrating how Black music has profoundly shaped mainstream popular music, fashion, art, politics and culture. The exhibition also champions and celebrates the artists, performers, musicians and songwriters who brought these sounds into the mainstream, while acknowledging the communities and histories from which they emerged.
Headphones are essential to this show, as visitors hear snippets of music that illuminate the objects on display or mark pivotal historical moments. The music is as much an artefact as the photographs, instruments, records and other archival material it accompanies. Ordinarily, I am wary of exhibitions that require every visitor to wear headphones. While audio guides are invaluable for accessibility, I sometimes worry that making them universal diminishes the quiet, contemplative atmosphere that galleries can foster. Here, however, the approach feels entirely justified. Music is the exhibition's central object, inseparable from the memorabilia, artworks and documentary material. Together they tell a single narrative and the result is a reminder of audio's remarkable storytelling power. In many museums silence tends to dominate, which I understand can make some people uncomfortable, but here music becomes the guide. I’ll bet that even without reading labels visitors could follow the emotional and historical arc of the exhibition simply by listening. The labels do enrich the experience, but the music allows many of the figures represented to speak for themselves, communicating emotion, memory and history in ways text alone never could.
The exhibition opens in Africa with rhythmic drumming fills the headphones, establishing both a geographical and cultural beginning. From there, the narrative moves into the legacies and traumas of the transatlantic slave trade, exploring how enslaved people preserved traditions, passed down stories, maintained hope and expressed resistance through music. The story then unfolds through abolition, migration and the emergence of new musical traditions born from displacement and resilience. Visitors encounter key historical moments including the Civil Rights Movement and the Windrush generation, discovering how Black music travelled wherever people did. These sounds found homes on radio stations, record labels, dancefloors, sound systems and in communities across Britain, from clubs and dancehalls to the streets of Notting Hill Carnival.
The exhibition demonstrates that Black music did far more than entertain. It amplified voices too often ignored, documented lived experiences and reshaped society in countless ways. As the exhibition progresses into the late twentieth century and the present day, it highlights artists whose influence extends well beyond music. Figures such as Bob Marley and Shirley Bassey helped transform cultural perceptions while paving the way for wider recognition and appreciation. More contemporary artists, including Stormzy and Seal, show that this story is still unfolding.
One of the exhibition's greatest strengths is its refusal to present Black music as a separate strand of British culture. Instead, it argues convincingly that Black music is woven into the fabric of Britain itself. From era-defining anthems to overlooked genres and forgotten pioneers, it reveals how deeply these musical traditions have shaped the nation's cultural identity. In a time when debates surrounding race, migration and national identity can feel increasingly polarised, The Music Is Black offers something refreshingly human. Music becomes a way of listening to people's experiences across generations. The exhibition encourages us to reflect on how we arrived here, celebrating the exchange of cultures and the voices that have travelled across the world to shape modern Britain. In many ways, the history of Black music is also the history of contemporary British society.
Beyond its exceptional soundtrack, the exhibition is visually rich and meticulously assembled. The archival material is fascinating, while the displays are carefully sequenced to support the exhibition's narrative. Every object, photograph, record sleeve, costume and instrument contributes to a wider story. Together, they reveal how music itself can function as a historical object. Every song captures a moment in time, preserving joy, struggle, identity, hope and memory. Piece by piece, these songs build a compelling narrative of the Black diaspora and its continuing influence across the globe.
If there is one criticism, it is simply that the exhibition leaves you wanting more. It would have been fascinating to return to Africa in its concluding galleries to explore the global success of contemporary genres such as Amapiano and Afrobeats, illustrating how influence continues to flow in every direction. Likewise, there is relatively little exploration of how Black musicians transformed mainstream popular music more directly, from rock and roll and Black musics’ influence on major non-Black artists like Elvis, onwards. Yet these omissions feel less like shortcomings than reminders of the sheer scale of the subject and to explore every thread fully would require an exhibition many times this size.
As an opening exhibition for V&A East, The Music Is Black is a remarkable achievement. It is visually engaging, emotionally resonant and intellectually ambitious, making a persuasive case that music is one of humanity's most powerful narrative forms. More than a soundtrack to history, Black music is history: preserving memory, telling stories, shaping identities and continuing to redefine the culture we live in today.