Explore 500 Years of Black British Music at the British Library

The British Library is documenting the musical journey of African and Caribbean people in Britain over the past 500 years with the Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music exhibition. The show features over 200 exhibits, many of which are being publicly displayed for the first time, including handwritten accounts from 1512 featuring materials for the wedding outfit of John Blanke, the earliest recorded musician of African descent in Britain; Jamal Edwards’ video camera used to shoot SB.TV videos; jazz musician Coleridge Goode’s 1958 diary; a custom made jacket for Skunk Anansie vocalist Skin; Stormzy’s signed Glasto 2019 set list; and Dennis Bovell’s 1970s Fender Stratocaster. There are also soundscapes, films and artworks that reflect the history of Black communities in Wales, protest music and resistance in Leeds, Rastafari culture, the DIY spirit of Black British music and the Black radical imagination.