Research insights

The aims of the Bass Culture research project were ambitious: it sought to re-contextualise and re-conceptualise British pop music history, laying the basis for a radical rethink of musical education and a hoped-for shift in attitudes in both academia and the culture sector. The methodology underpinning it had to be equally rigorous, ambitious and unconventional. To build support and ultimately bring together academics, museum people and the Jamaican community involved a delicate balancing act and a constant translation of sorts between community perceptions and the expectations of academics and culture professionals.

Working together as a team of academics, we were able to break down and classify our areas of interest, without disenfranchising the participants – our co-researchers. In creating the website, we were able to apply key categories that helped guide navigation of the complex layers of material, cultural and economic activity underpinning key values that were shared within the community, while mapping the contribution for academia.

The website also allowed an in-depth form of engagement we had not anticipapted, as by training participants in interview techniques and the use of recording equipment, I found we could also circumvent budgetary issues. We upskilled interviewees to write and share their stories online, bringing together many different groups – musicians, entrepreneurs and fans – from all backgrounds. Post-AHRC project, the website continues to function as the first online archive. Such is the community and academic response that it has seen two upgrades, validating interest in the subject area. It has also inspired academic conferences at Goldsmiths and SOAS, University of London; and Solent, Sussex and Leicester Universities. All the original website content has been digitally archived across three locations: the British Library, Black Cultural Archives and the University of Westminster. The material has become the basis of new Bass Culture initiatives, including a series of podcasts, so for the moment only 15% of the original interviews are hosted on the site. I have agreed to extend this research through a significant project ultimately leading to an exhibition at the British Library exploring black British music.

The Bass Culture film provides insights from key musicians and industry professionals into the creativity of the black British community across six decades of new musical genres. Driven by the perspective of youth, the film starts in the present and journeys back to the late 1950s. Its achievement is to provide an unbroken intergenerational exploration of the birth of the most significant black British music genres since the 1970s.