Pauline Black: A 2-Tone Story

Know your history!

I was born in ‘96, and by the time I was old enough to know British Music, let alone Black British Music, my tastes were decidedly set on pop. I had never been exposed to 2-Tone, or to the history of Black artists in the UK that hadn’t become megastars in my lifetime. Pauline Black feels like another hidden figure in the history of our country’s music industry, and this documentary wants to have that era come to an end.

It is a documentary adaptation of Pauline’s Memoir, and does feel equally as sprawling, but in a good way - the objective is to map out the impact she had on the industry, and how her personal upbringing and experiences shaped the way she could bring that impact forth. I identified deeply with her assessment of the industry, of being a woman in a man’s world, and a black woman in a white man’s world, especially as they take the music we are heir to and find ways to capitalise on it.

This isn’t a story of wholesale disenfranchisement though, and I think that’s what makes it really fantastic to watch - this is the story of an incredibly powerful artist that didn’t back down from the fight, and who paved the way for all of us - from me, to Sade, to Raye - to attempt to be striking figures of our own time.