Draft:Black Music Research Unit

• Comment: Fails WP:NORG, requires significant coverage in multiple independent secondary sources. Dan arndt (talk) 09:25, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

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The Black Music Research Unit (BMRU), is a research group based at the University of Westminster University of Westminster. The BMRU is a part of CREAM ((Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media)). CREAM is "a world-leading centre and pioneer in practice-based, critical, theoretical and historical research in art, creative and interdisciplinary practice." The BMRU operates as part of the Department of Music at Westminster. Launched in 2016 by Principal Investigator and Director of the Black Research Unit director Dr Mykaell Riley, the BMRU is an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners providing a mix of academic and industry expertise. The Unit works with academics, practitioners and cultural institutions to shed light on the often undocumented experiences of Black-British musicians, cultural contributors and minority ethnic communities in the UK, with an interest in post-Windrush generation experiences specifically. The first project to focus on the largely undocumented musical experiences of black and minority ethnic communities in the UK was the AHRC funded Bass Culture project. This was one of the first large-scale funded projects of its kind to explore the impact of Caribbean musical culture in the UK.

The Bass Culture Exhibition was open to the public between 25th October to November 22nd 2018 exhibiting at the Ambika P3 gallery space in London. Partners of the exhibition included the AHRC, Black Cultural Archives BCA, British Library, SOAS, Goldsmiths, WinkBall, Urbanimage and Camera Press.

The term Bass Culture originated in the UK as the title of the 1980 album by Linton Kwesi Johnson Bass Culture. These two words, "Bass" and "Culture", have evolved to transcend any individual genre, to reflect (directly or indirectly) music born out of the impact and influence of the Jamaican community and Jamaican music on Britain. The term primarily focuses on the UK and explores the subsequent changes to indigenous music production and the formation of new music communities at the heart of this scene. The term speaks to a key catalyst within popular music in Britain, one which continues to underpin multiculturalism and new music whilst bridging generational divides. In a narrative that began a decade earlier in 1950s Jamaica, in Britain, it was the success of ska in the mid-60s which brought the music to national attention. The term 'bass culture' can include but is not be limited to blue beat, ska, rock steady, reggae, dub, roots reggae, British reggae, Brit ska, jungle, drum and bass, trip hop, UK garage, 2 step, grime, dubstep and a host of other genres and sub genres born out of the British experience.

The Bass Culture project resulted in several research outputs, including:

• Series of 60 filmed oral history interviews – with musicians and producers, DJs and dancers, sound system crews, writers, thinkers, music industry professionals, visual artists and more.
• Feature-length documentary film produced in partnership with youth-led media organisation Fully Focused Productions.
• Two conferences in 2019 at Senate House, London and the Regent Street Cinema
• Bass Culture Project Archive

A significant contribution made by the Bass Culture project's principal investigator Dr Mykaell Riley was as the academic consultant for what is now referred to as. This led to the withdrawal of Form 696, a controversial risk assessment form criticised for being discriminatory and targeting genres such as grime. Interviewees for the project included Mykaell Riley, Prince Rapid, Koby 'Posty' Hagan, S.K.I.T.Z Beatz, Novelist and GHSTLY.

In 2024, Dr Mykaell Riley co-curated Beyond the Bassline, the first national exhibition of Black music and culture in the UK. Hosted at and in collaboration with The British Library, the exhibition takes visitors through 500 years of Black-British music, culture and history, and was the product of over three years of research.

Beyond the Bassline Exhibition

As part of the Beyond the Bassline exhibition, the BMRU in collaboration with the British Library, organised and ran the Black British Music: Past, Present and Futures Symposium

The keynote speaker for the symposium was Michelle Escoffery, who is the current president of the PRS Members' Council. Escoffery was also interviewed by who is an A&R Director at AWAL and founding member of the Black Music Coalition (BMC).

The BMRU supervised music production and performance students at the University of Westminster who were commissioned to write original scores for the British TV series Boarders. The soundtrack album contained 22 tracks covering a wide range of genres including reggae, electronic, rap and RnB and was released on the 5th April 2024 available on Spotify.

BMRU Researchers

• Dr Mykaell Riley started his music career as an integral member of pioneering British reggae band Steel Pulse and their ground-breaking album Handsworth Revolution. He is a record producer on the album Return of the Mack and East 17's debut album Walthamstow (album) with mixes for Björk's Venus as a Boy. He also formed the Reggage Philharmonic Orchestra who performed on Soul II Soul's recordings including Keep On Movin'

Alongside Riley, BMRU's main researchers based at the University of Westminster include:

• Dr Sally-Anne Gross has worked in the music industry since 1989, as an artist manager, A & R manager, and as a record label director and head of business affairs. She is a Reader in Music Business at the University of Westminster and a public speaker. In 2017, Sally and her co-researcher Dr George Musgrave were responsible for largest ever study into the mental health of musicians in the music industry, entitled 'Can Music Make You Sick' which was funded by the charity Help Musicians UK. Sally's research areas cover working practices in the music industries and how they impact equality and diversity, specifically looking at issues of gender, race, and sexuality. Sally is also board member of The Ivors Academy Trust.
• Dr Chris Christodoulou is a Senior Lecturer in media and music sociology at the University of Westminster. He is interested in the links between sound, moving image production, and emerging/interactive media, and takes a sample-based approach to teaching audio production. His published work focuses on the impact of accelerationism on electronic dance music subcultures inflected by Black British and UK working-class experiences, especially jungle drum and bass, along with the culturally resistant use of technology in the social production of underground music.
• Julia Toppin is a Lecturer in Music Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at the University of Westminster. She is an inclusive Junglist Historian and an advocate for women in music, particularly black women. Her research interests include music ecologies aka music cities, music business, and music education. Julia has contributed to several books, podcasts, live talks and has written for Resident Advisor, DJ Mag, The Quietus, The Conversation and Beatportal and broadcasts on Repeater Radio about popular culture for the New Nationwide Project and Jungle Drum and Bass show Conscious Lyrics.
• Research associate Lizzie Bowes works with BMRU director Dr Mykaell Riley to support the launch of the Beyond the Bassline Exhibition and future projects. She is a first year AHRC-funded PhD student at the University of Bristol, working across the Departments of Music, English, and affiliated with the University's Centre for Black Humanities. Her project considers a sub-genre of UK rap known as conscious rap, thinking about longer-form rap albums with politically conscious overtones as works of Black-British autofiction.