Put Your Headphones On: Exploring Black British Music at V&A East

I have just paid my first visit to V&A East, which is part of East Bank, London’s newest cultural and education quarter on the site of the former Olympic Park in Stratford.

East Bank is a £1.1 billion project that grew out of the legacy of the 2012 Olympics. The first plans were announced in 2013 and it now brings together the V&A East, Sadler’s Wells East, London College of Fashion, University College London and the BBC’s new music studios, which are due to open in 2027.

There’s also the London Aquatics Centre nearby – an incredible building designed by the late, great architect Zaha Hadid – although technically that isn’t part of East Bank itself.

Getting there involves navigating the commercial labyrinth that is Westfield shopping centre. If you go with a 10-year-old shopping fan, try to close your eyes and run as fast as you can through it.
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You can’t miss V&A East once you reach it. Right outside the museum is a huge bronze sculpture by British artist Thomas J Price. Called A Place Beyond, the five-metre-high figure represents a young woman in everyday clothes holding a mobile phone. She sits directly on the ground rather than on a plinth, which makes this enormous figure feel surprisingly familiar and approachable.

Price’s work often questions who gets to be commemorated in public spaces and how we represent people in monuments. You can also see his work elsewhere in London, including Warm Shores outside Hackney Town Hall, which commemorates and celebrates the Windrush generation, who came from the Caribbean to the UK between 1948 and 1970.

It seemed particularly fitting to visit V&A East during Black History Month this October. The museum only opened in April 2026 and opened with two free permanent galleries called Why We Make, containing more than 500 objects from the V&A’s collections and exploring how and why people make things across art, design, fashion, architecture and performance.
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I didn’t have time to visit these on this occasion – I had a 10-year-old in tow and had prioritised the music – so I’ll be back to see what these galleries are like and how V&A East differentiates itself from its much older sibling in Kensington.

I was keen to visit The Music Is Black: A British Story, a temporary exhibition which runs until January 2027. It takes visitors on a sonic and visual journey through 125 years of Black music-making in Britain. You start by putting on a headset and music is cunningly triggered as you encounter different objects and displays, creating a constantly changing soundtrack to the things you are looking at.
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I have never had this experience in a museum before. I initially wondered whether having music pumping into my ears throughout the exhibition might become annoying, but it actually worked brilliantly and I found myself absorbed in the sound as another way of telling the story of how Black British music has evolved since 1900.  Luckily – and as is often the case with exhibitions these days - the V&A has published the track list online. I highly recommend having a listen.

There are some real discoveries here alongside plenty of proper nostalgia. The exhibition explores the influence of African and Caribbean musical traditions, migration and diaspora before moving through the different forms of music that developed in Britain. It takes in eight genres in particular: lovers rock, Brit funk, 2 Tone, trip hop and the Bristol Sound, jungle, drum and bass, UK garage and grime.
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The curators have amassed a brilliantly diverse selection of objects. There are original signs from legendary London clubs including 4 Aces and Blue Note, material relating to sound systems such as Count Shelly’s in Hackney, and equipment that shows how technology has changed the way music is made and shared. Some of the most interesting things are the objects that tell a story you wouldn't necessarily expect.

There is a battered piano belonging to Winifred Atwell, the Trinidadian-born pianist who became the first Black music artist to have a UK number one single in 1954. The piano is covered in graffiti left by fans, having been encouraged by Atwell herself was a way of leaving personal connections. There’s Joan Armatrading’s childhood guitar, being displayed for the first time, and a Super Nintendo belonging to grime artist Jme. Apparently, he used the Mario Paint game in his early experiments with making music.

​I particularly enjoyed seeing the conducting batons belonging to the composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, whose career stretches back to the beginning of the 20th century. Plus, the original outfits worn by artists including Seal, Skin of Skunk Anansie, Shirley Bassey (a particularly dazzling number which she wore when performing Goldfinger at the 2013 Academy Awards) and Poly Styrene. There is even the Union Jack stab-proof vest designed by Banksy and worn by Stormzy during his headline performance at Glastonbury in 2019.

There is contemporary art integrated into the exhibition too, which adds another dimension. Artists including Sonia Boyce, Frank Bowling, Zak Ové and Denzil Forrester who have been pioneers in their own fields, just as much as the musicians represented here.  With around 200 objects on display and such a rich soundtrack, it isn't really possible to take everything in on one visit. And I don't think you're supposed to.
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One of the things I liked most was watching people move through the exhibition and gravitate towards the music, artists and objects that meant something to them personally. As I did, people would stop when a familiar song came through their headphones, or sway along to the music without any self-consciousness.

My 10 year-old, although seeming to zoom through the exhibition, loved having her own headset and the ability to choose her own path through the music and displays. There was plenty to engage her:  artists she recognised, others she had heard of and, having a bit of an eye for fashion, the various outfits on display were a particular hit.  By the end, it made her realise how influential and important Britain’s home-grown music scene has been.

​That seems to me to be one of the strengths of the exhibition. It isn't trying to tell you what Black British music means. It gives you 125 years of stories, sounds, people, places, objects and influences and lets you find your own way through them. The exhibition is a real celebration of something Britain should be rightly proud of.
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The Music Is Black: A British Story is at V&A East until 10 January 2027.