Music television

I'm Anneka Allan-Gray, and this is Then Now Next, the podcast where we tell the stories of the Black British creatives who built, shaped, and are now redefining the TV industry.

This is episode four, Music Television.

The nineties and noughties was a redefining era for Black culture in the UK.

Black music genres were emerging and becoming part of the mainstream.

The 1990s were a decade of contradiction.

While Black creatives continued to fight for space in newsrooms, dramas, and comedies, Black British music was becoming impossible to ignore.

What began in clubs, pirate radio stations, and local communities was rapidly becoming mainstream, transforming music television into one of the most visible spaces for Black British culture, introducing a new generation of presenters, performers, and cultural tastemakers.

In the nineties, Choice FM became the UK's first legal Black radio station.