“When you’re making jungle music, there’s no rules.”
That’s one of many nuggets of music production wisdom you’ll find in Britain’s latest music docuseries, The Evolution of Black British Music.
The Evolution of Black British Music was released on My5, a video-on-demand service Channel 5 in the UK, owned by Paramount Global.
The documentary series aired on August 11 and featured the history of a wide array of contemporary Black British musicians, including Fabio & Grooverider, DJ Ron, Goldie, and
Each episode looks at each Black British music genre, its development throughout history, and its primary exponents and masterpieces cemented their position as relevant music genres.
The first episode analyzes the jungle and how it became mainstream in the early ‘90s.
The second episode talks about the history of the garage, which succeeded jungle and was also one of the most popular dance music genres of the early nineties.
Each episode in the documentary spans sixty minutes and all of them are directed by Nigerian-British actor Femi Oyeniran and actor/DJ Nicky Slimting Walker.
In an interview with 5 News, Femi Oyeniran mentioned how the project had great sentimental value to him.
They really wanted to make something that represented Black British music in its fullness, and calls it the most important documentary they’ve created on the topic.
It would serve as a time capsule for Black British music, covering the latest 35 years and serving as a link for future enthusiasts on the matter to analyze the origins and evolution of the genres covered by the series.
For them, Black British music is the most potent art form to come from Black British people, and they were mostly motivated by their love for music.
The piece is educational, historical and meant for the general consumer and the music enthusiast.
They believe in the importance of documenting Black British music contributions, especially considering how many of the music programs created back in the day focus on the pop element of music and completely ignore the simultaneous developments of the Black British scene.
Oyeniran mentions in the interview how every five years there’s a new shift that changes the Black British music scene.
When there’s a problem with a Black British music genre, and the episodes will expand on this idea by featuring back-to-back genres and how they served as the answer to the previous episode’s genre.
The first two episodes of the docuseries are out and you can watch them on Channel 5’s online platform here.