Draft:Black Music Research Unit

The Black Music Research Unit, commonly abbreviated to BMRU, is a research group operating as part of the Department of Music at the University of Westminster. Launched in 2016 by director Dr Mykaell Riley, the Unit's first project was the AHRC funded Bass Culture project, one of the first large-scale funded projects exploring the impact of Caribbean musical culture in the UK.

The Unit works with academics, practitioners and cultural institutions to shed light on the often undocumented experience of Black-British musicians and cultural contributors in the UK, with an interest in post-Windrush generation experiences specifically.

In 2024, Dr Mykaell Riley, director of the Black Music Research Unit, 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 aims to take visitors through 500 years of Black-British music, culture and history, and was the product of over three years of research.