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| Established | 2009 (2009) |
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| Location | Cunard Building, Water Street/Canada Boulevard,Liverpool,England, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 53°24′15″N2°59′43″W / 53.4041°N 2.9954°W /53.4041; -2.9954 |
| Website | Official website |
TheBritish Music Experience is a permanent exhibition in theCunard Building on Liverpool's waterfront. It began as an exhibition, taking up more than 20,000 square feet,[1] installed intoThe O2 Bubble, part ofThe O2 inGreenwich, London. Opened with a private concert byThe View[2] in March 2009, it featured a retrospective look at the British music industry since 1944.[3] The museum closed on 30 April 2014 and announced it was looking for a new home. On 10 September 2015 it was confirmed that the new home for the British Music Experience would be the Cunard Building on Liverpool's waterfront.
Spearheaded by music mogulHarvey Goldsmith, designed by Land Design Studio[4] and funded by The O2 ownersAEG, BME was created to fill a gap in the UK Heritage sector for Rock and Pop Music.[5] Previously, theNational Centre for Popular Music in Sheffield had attempted to achieve this but failed to attract visitors and was eventually closed.
The British Music Experience has been set up as a charitable trust and has been funded by £9.5m worth of investment from AEG who hoped to recoup their costs within five years.[6] Sponsorship agreements with ThePerforming Rights Society,[7]Gibson Guitars andSennheiser[4] amongst others have helped establish the exhibition. In 2010 the UK's fifth biggest food retailer,The Co-operative Group, signed on as the exhibition's main sponsor, pledging to give away 15,000 tickets over the next three years.
A narrative with common elements that is divided up into galleries tells the story of popular music in the UK. Together, the zones effectively provide a timeline of the history of British popular music from 1945 to the present. Instead of being divided into convenient decades, they represent the actual moments of change that took place so frequently over the course of our story's 70-year span. In those times of transition, genres change.
There is an interactive timeline in each of the galleries. Each of these has a projected matrix of events with a foreground interface that provides access to in depth digital material. The user is able to scan and select across the whole timeline to select an event which reveals magazine style headlines, images and movies.
Major interactive exhibits which can be found in the museum's galleries include:
Many of these interactive exhibits have been developed by specialist software suppliers[9]Clay Interactive Ltd,iso design andStudio Simple with consultation from a curatorial team includingRobert Santelli,[10] who worked on other major music exhibits such as TheRock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio and TheGrammy Museum in Los Angeles.[11] The initial BME curatorPaul Lilley, with Sarah Clark and Laura Bailey, were responsible for the extensive number of artefacts and exhibits on view and the rest of the BME content team was made up of music consultantsRob Dickins, David Roberts andMark Ellen.
The BME has an extensive collection of rock and pop artefacts used to curate the rich history of popular British music alongside a social and political backdrop.
The collection is the only comprehensive collection that charts the rise of British Popular Music from its roots in jazz to the present day.
Highlights of some of the artefacts that can be found at the British Music Experience include:[6][12][13]
The instrument studio allows visitors to play a wide range of musical instruments including electric guitars and drums, and even mix a music track. Here you can engage with an onscreen lesson from say KT Tunstall on how to finger the chords of her favourite hit song. Following this you can play along with her video of the track. Users of this space do not need any previous skills.
The BME regularly hosts learning and public programmes and temporary exhibitions to delve deeper into a band's artistry or music trends and movements. Past events and exhibitions have included:
BME offers interactive workshops and seminars for schools tied to key stage objectives in theNational Curriculum, including subjects such as geography, ICT, citizenship, careers, design and pop culture.
