Jacqueline Springer, curator of Africa & Diaspora: Performance at the Victoria & Albert Museum, carefully curated the exhibition. Springer told Rolling Stone that it is a “celebration and understanding of how social and political histories are responded to by people and their cultures to provide the art we all enjoy.”

The exhibition explores the transformation of black music in Britain through colonialisation over the years and commemorates the legacy of these artists by shining a light on all their historic moments. By exploring 8 different genres, visitors can learn about the roots of black music and where it came from and what gives black music its own identity. Nearly 300 objects have been displayed to represent the origin of these genres: 2 tone, lovers rock, Brit funk, jungle, drum & bass, trip hop, UK garage and grime.

This immersive experience combines sound and video to create a sensory landscape in which cultural artifacts can also be seen. The collection will include a plethora of items ranging from instruments to costumes as well as photography.

Culturally significant objects like Stormzy’s Union Jack vest can be viewed, reminding visitors that he made history being the first black British solo artist to headline Glastonbury. The stab proof vest was designed by Banksy in 2019 and was a political statement, tackling the issues of identity and knife crime in the 2010s. Other notable exhibits are a piano from Winifred Atwell who became the first black artist to reach Number 1 on the UK single charts, and JME’s game console on which he recorded his first debut album before having professional equipment.

Springer also told Billboard that she wants people to leave this experience thinking “how incredible it is to live under the same sky as somebody who makes music that makes you feel better about yourself.” To have the full experience visitors will be given a headset to listen to the carefully curated playlist that is personalised to different sections within the gallery. The playlist for the audio soundscape can be found here, featuring artists like Stormzy and Skepta.

Under 26s and student tickets are priced at £11, while regular tickets are between £22.50-£24.50, and can be found via the V&A Museum’s website

The exhibition will cover music from older styles such as jazz and lovers rock, to more recent genres such as jungle, grime and drill, honouring the DIY spirit of Black British music.

The exhibition starts with the arrival of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra in London from the U.S in 1919, continuing through to Fuse ODG’s afrobeat response to ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ in 2024.

The history will be told through “vintage mixtapes, iconic magazine covers, and fly-posted walls”, exploring how Black British genres have impacted music as we know it, and the spirit of resistance that made them possible.

Scott Leonard, one of the UK’s experts in black music, has curated the exhibition with author Lloyd Bradley. Talking to the BBC, Leonard stressed the need for an authentic retelling of Black British music history: “Too often in this country, black cultural heritage is packaged presented to the people by those that weren’t there, so this type of exhibition at Barbican Music Library and the ‘heritage collecting’ days reverse the lens.

“They enable and empower the British black music community to tell their stories of what it was, and what it meant to them, because they must be captured and preserved before these stories disappear forever.”

Mr Leonard said the exhibition shows how the genres may have changed “but the culture and process didn’t”, drawing comparison between notable artists – “So Lord Kitchener, Eddy Grant, Carroll Thompson, The Cookie Crew, Jazzie B, Ms Dynamite, and Dizzie Rascal all followed the same guidelines,”

The free exhibition is part of Destination City, the City of London Corporation’s growth strategy for the Square Mile as a dynamic, world-leading hub for business, culture and leisure.

The organisation invests over £130m every year in heritage and cultural activities in the UK, also managing other institutions such as Tower Bridge, Guildhall Art Gallery and The London Archives.

In a press release, Chris Hayward from the City of London Corporation shared his enthusiasm for the Black British museum project: “With its many styles and charismatic performers, Black Sound London will strike a chord with everyone who enjoys listening to British black music and is keen to find out how LP sales in niche record shops, air time on pirate radio stations, and community spaces played a key role in its success.”

Black Sound London will run at the Barbican Library from March 10 to July 19 – more details can be found here.

The British Library were required to shut down events at the building due to what they described as ‘planned electrical work’ which was scheduled due to major technology outage as a result of a cyber-attack‘ throughout the last week of June, however the doors to ‘Beyond the Baseline’ re-opened as of noon on the 30th of June so that history buffs and music lovers alike can spend the summer enjoying the spectacular array of artifacts and immersive artworks.

According to an article by RAWSTORY the exhibit is ‘made up of five sections’ beginning with ‘ “Ocean”, which explores the black British music’s fraught colonial past’ and ending with ‘ “Cyberspace”, which examines the modern-day impacts of technology and the rising mainstream popularity of black British artists.’

‘Beyond the Bassline’ will run till the 24th of August and features historical artifacts — such as the tuning fork gifted to black violinist George Bridgetower by Beethoven as a token of their friendship after the duos inaugural performance of their piece ‘Kreutzer’ as well as the 16ft tall peacock costume designed by Leeds Carnival veteran Hughbon Condor who has been creating costumes for over 50 years.

Talking to AFP, Aleema Gray who has curated the exhibit, sees it as a “journey… through time and space”. Gray mentioned that the use of “we” and “our” in the text labels that accompany many of the instillations are intended directly address visitors “like is we are speaking to” them. The target audience of the exhibition is “young people, music fans and people of African and Caribbean heritage community”, primarily those who have previously felt unwelcome at institutions such as the British Library .

The British Library have worked in collaboration with a number of community organisations across the UK for create sound scapes and moving images as well as a dance video which was filmed in Cardiff on the coast by the group Jukebox Collective as well as and an installation imitating a church which honours  influence of religion on black British music.

The final section is a immersive short film by the name  Iwoyi, created by director and producer Tayo Rapoport and Rohan Ayinde in collaboration the group Touching Bass. Touching Bass are a South London based  musical movement/curatorial platform who host monthly dances, concert series as well as sustain their own record label and biweekly NTS Radio residency. You can watch the promotional video for the short film below which features on the groups Instagram.

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You can check out tickets for the event on the Seetickets website here.