“The Music Is Black: A British Story,” edited by Jacqueline Springer with a foreword from Dame Shirley Bassey, is out now via the Victoria & Albert Museum, offering an epic account of British imperial and colonial history, the African diaspora, and contemporary British social history told entirely through song.
Black British music has served as the soundtrack to profound periods of political, social, cultural, and demographic change, functioning as the sound of identity, resistance, celebration, loss, and hope all at once. The book opens with an exploration of the sound and identity of the African diaspora as shaped by British imperialism and colonialism from the 1400s through 1900, before Springer surveys the Black musical landscape in Britain from 1900 to 1970.
American rap and Jamaican ragga receive particular attention for their vital contributions to homegrown genres central to the book, including lovers rock, Brit funk, 2 tone, jungle, drum and bass, trip-hop, and UK garage and grime. Each genre is examined through both academic framing of its social and political context and firsthand artist interviews, featuring voices including Carroll Thompson, Neville Staple, Kenny Wellington, Bluey Maunick, Fabio and Grooverider, Skye Edwards and Ross Godfrey of Morcheeba, Megaman, DJ Target, and Slimzee.
Springer, curator of Africa and Diaspora: Performance at the V&A, brings deep institutional expertise to the project, resulting in a book that bears witness to the resilience, ingenuity, and heart behind Black British music’s creators across generations.
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