Professor Mykaell Riley, Director of the Black Music Research Unit (BMRU) and Lead Researcher for the Bass Culture project at the University of Westminster, delivered his first professorial lecture titled Calibrated to Miss Us: Black Music Meta Science and the Instruments of Cultural Knowledge. Taking place at the Regent Street Cinema, the lecture explored how the systems used to record, measure, archive and fund music have often overlooked Black British music and culture, and how new approaches can help reshape cultural knowledge production.
Held on 6 October, the event brought together students, academics, musicians, policymakers and members of the public to hear Professor Riley reflect on more than four decades of research and practice.
He drew examples that highlighted previously overlooked genres and creative talent and demonstrated how cultural institutions can become more inclusive and representative. These included his research in the 2017 Grime Report, as part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded Bass Culture project, that contributed directly to a change in London Metropolitan policing and the removal of Form 696, a risk assessment form used by police to gather information on music events and performers, widely criticised for disproportionately targeting grime and other Black-led music scenes.
He also highlighted exhibitions that transformed the cataloguing of Black British music, including the Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music at the British Library, which ran between April and September 2024 and documented the centuries of African and Caribbean musical contributions to the UK. The exhibition won the Museums + Heritage (M+H) Awards 2025 in the Temporary and Touring Exhibition of the Year with a Budget More than £80,000 category, highlighting the University's cultural impact of research.
He spoke about the importance of giving students hands-on experience through industry-linked live projects, highlighting the opportunity Music Production, Performance and Business BA Honours students received in 2024 to create the soundtrack of the BBC Three series Boarders. The students brought a diverse mix of talents and musical perspectives, with a mix of male and female song writers, vocalists, rappers and programmers getting involved. Through the experience they got the chance to face real-life challenges of creating a TV soundtrack, with students at one point contributing from New York, Italy and the UK to hit deadlines.
Lastly, he discussed his contribution to Parliament’s landmark Black Music Means Business report, which drew on his Beyond the Bassline research and found that Black music has contributed an estimated 80% of the UK’s £30 billion recorded music market since 1994. The report also used his identification of 29 Black British music genres, which have generated over £1.24 billion over the past 30 years.
Professor Riley concluded by stating that together these examples open a new field called Black Music Meta Science, and point to something larger called Cultural Meta Science, the study of how cultural knowledge is produced, kept and counted. He argued that when existing systems fail to recognise certain communities and forms of creativity, developing new frameworks for understanding culture becomes an act of scholarship and empowerment.
Professor Riley said: “The difference between not seeing someone or overlooking their culture, is the difference between an empty archive and an emptied one. You see an archive is as much proof of a contribution, as it is of contributions lost."
Professor Riley's work directly contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 4: Quality Education and 10: Reduced Inequalities. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.
Find out more about Music courses at the University of Westminster.
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