Stormzy's stab-proof vest, which he wore during his headline set at Glastonbury, is one of the centrepieces of a new exhibition highlighting 125 years of black British music. The Music Is Black: A British Story is the very first installation at the brand new V&A East, which opens in London's Olympic Park this weekend. It also includes Joan Armatrading's childhood guitar, stage outfits from Seal and Poly Styrene, and the handwritten lyrics to Michael Jackson's Thriller.
The show traces how imported genres like jazz, reggae and the blues gave rise to the distinctly British sounds of Two Tone, Garage, Trip Hop and Grime. Stormzy's vest, which was designed by Banksy and emblazoned with the Union Jack, is displayed near the end of the exhibition - illustrating how music can address issues of national identity, street crime, and prejudice. "That's the beauty of street art, of graffiti, of rap music, is that it's making you think constantly about issues you don't really want to confront," says Jacqueline Springer, who curated the show for the V&A.
"This is about ambition pursued against legal restriction, against moral and against racial discrimination. "What we're looking at here is the way that art always penetrates, always gets through." The exhibition frames Stormzy's statement - made as he became the first British rapper to headline Glastonbury - in a historical context of protest and rebellion. Before we get to it, the gallery takes us on a cross-continental, decades-long journey, showing how music from Africa and the Caribbean was shaped by colonialism and religion, then transported to the UK, where it took on new life.
"Before rock and roll's rebellion, there was jazz," explains Springer. "Jazz's rebellion emerges from the blues, and the blues is a stripped down, less churchified, incarnation of gospel. "And so you come to see that black music underpins popular music in America and Northwest Europe." One of the exhibition's most striking exhibits is Winifred Atwell's battle-scarred upright piano.
It was on this deliberately out-of-tune instrument, bought in a second-hand shop, that the Trinidad-born musician composed Let's Have Another Party - which became the UK's first number one single by a black artist in 1954. The piano is pock marked with graffiti, etched into its body by fans - at Atwell's request - showing how she broke down racial barriers to become one of the UK's most prominent musicians, spending 117 weeks in the UK charts, and fronting her own shows on ITV and BBC television. "What's key about Winifred is that her experience with prejudice, both racial and gendered, is that she factored it into her own activism," says Springer.
"When she was playing, she could look at all of these messages of adoration... [so] the entire instrument is this testimony to not only a particular musical genre, but also her relationship with her fans." Other highlights Jerry Dammers' original sketches for the 2-Tone record label logo; the Nintendo console that grime star JME used to make his first tracks; and the dress Dame Shirley Bassey wore for an Oscars' tribute to James Bond. "How do you get Dame Shirley to lend you her dress? You have charm, you have wit, and you also say to them, 'Please, please, can we do it?'" laughs Springer.
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