Exhibition celebrating 100 years of Black British music opens in London

An exhibition celebrating 100 years of Black British music has opened at the Barbican Music Library.

Black Sound London explores a vast musical history that begins with the arrival of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra in London from the US in 1919, and moves towards exploring the biggest Black stars in music today.

The exhibition covers various musical genres that have been pioneered and developed by Black people, from jungle and grime, to lovers’ rock and jazz.

“Too often in this country, Black cultural heritage is 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,” Black Sound London co-curator Scott Leonard told the BBC.

He added: “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.”

Leonard curated the exhibition, which will be open until 19th July, alongside Lloyd Bradley. It includes sound installations, magazine covers, vintage mixtapes and other ephemera from across a timespan of 100 years.

Find out more about Black Sound London here.

Last year, Netflix debuted a documentary series focusing on the evolution of Black British music.