Before grime had charts, before Afrobeats sold out arenas, before Skepta headlined festivals, Black British music was being built in bedrooms, pirate radio stations and community halls.
Well, just in time for Black History Month, the V&A East has announced tickets for its first exhibition titled The Music is Black: A British Story. The new exhibition celebrates the sounds, stories and cultural moments that shaped Black British music over the last 125 years.
But don’t expect a quiet, glass-case musuem show. This one is loud.
Opening in April, V&A East is partnering with BBC Music to bring the multisensory exhibition to life. Blending sound installations, fashion, photography and over 200 artifacts, the four part exhibition will trace everything from early jazz and lovers rock to jungle, garage and grime, showing how these genres didn’t just influence Britain, but defined it.
“We’ve created V&A East Museum as a hub for collaboration, creativity and celebration, and our first exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story, is the embodiment of this,” V&A East Director Gus Casely-Hayford said.
“This is an important story, not just for Britain and British music, but for Black artistry globally, and its an honour to spotlight this in London, home to the creation of some of the most exciting musical genres. We’re thrilled to be collaborating with BBC Music and our East Bank partners on the festival inspired by the exhibition.”
You’ll find JME’s childhood Super Nintendo (yes, the one he used to experiment with beat making), Joan Armatrading’s first guitar, outfits worn by Seal and Little Simz, and the piano belonging to Winifred Atwell, the first Black artist to top the UK charts.
Think of it as less of a history lesson and more of a walk-through playlist of modern Britain. Although for curator Jacqueline Springer, the exhibition exploits emotion more than anything.
“Music reflects and feeds emotions. 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,” she said.
“We hope that visitors will emerge with a broader appreciation of Black British music makers, the enormous influence of Black musicality – internationally and domestically – and the legacy of the influence of the African diaspora.”
Alongside the exhibition, The Music is Black Festival will bring concerts, talks and collaborations to venues across the Olympic Park, meaning the history on display isn’t just something you look at, but something you hear and experience in real time.
For Royal Holloway students, it’s also an easy day trip. Stratford is under an hour from campus and student tickets start at £10 (cheaper than most nights out) making it one of those rare cultural events that feels both meaningful and actually affordable.
And during Black History Month, it feels especially timely.
V&A East Museum opens to all on Saturday, 18 April 2026. Opening hours are 10:00-18:00, seven-days-a-week, with late night openings to 22:00 every Thursday and Saturday. Tickets are currently available here