UK Music has released a groundbreaking new report examining the economic, cultural and community impact of Black music in the UK. Researchers from Counterculture used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies to analyse data gathered from a wide range of sources stretching back to 1994. The report’s findings highlight the unmatched contributions of Black genres and artists to the music industry, generating over eighty percent of total commercial revenue in Britain over the past thirty years.
The influence of Bristol’s Black musicians and rich cultural heritage is also underlined, with nods to St. Paul’s Carnival and Ujima Radio, as well key genres such as trip hop, dubstep and jungle, pioneered by artists like Massive Attack, Roni Size, Portishead and Tricky. Organisations such as Saffron Records, Trinity and Big Team are noted for providing invaluable community infrastructure and nurturing emerging talent from the city. The report also recognises some of the challenges Bristol’s music scene continues to face, from gaps in funding and career development to the recent dissipation of the world-leading Bristol Nights initiative (more on this here) and a need for more Black-led cultural spaces like Kuumba and the Malcolm X Centre.
Despite the overwhelming positivity of much of the report’s findings, its authors also draw attention to the discrimination and inequality that Black musicians continue to face, providing recommendations that include better long-term investment and funding, embedding in education and the expansion of global opportunities in order for the scene to thrive. As a business that sits between the creative and commercial sectors, we recognise the invaluable role that Black artists and entrepreneurs continue to play. We rely on their work as both clients and collaborators and it is vital that, as an industry, we continue to support the growth and success of historically undervalued communities and uplift and nurture the talent that emerges from them.