Nashville, TN – All About Music

Many movies have been made about Nashville. Enough books have been written about Music City to fill a bookstore. And, of course, dozens of songs are dedicated to the city of music. But while music is the lifeblood of Nashville, visitors will also find here a city of culture and history, fine dining, professional sports, outstanding academics, natural beauty and pure southern charm.

Nashville is a place where past and future peacefully coexist and build on each other to create a destination that appeals to the interests of every visitor. This city is alive. You can feel its pulse when you walk along its sidewalks. And luckily, you can also listen to it almost anywhere you go.

How Nashville Became Music City:

From its inception, Nashville grew from a foundation built on music. Music has always been the common thread that connects the life and soul of the city and its people. And visitors have always ventured here to experience the music that weaves such a fundamental pattern into its cultural, business and social fabric.

Nashville’s earliest settlers celebrated in the late 1700s with fiddle tunes and deer dancing after landing safely on the banks of the Cumberland River, a spot now commemorated on First Avenue North with a replica of the original Fort Nashborough. Nashville’s first “celebrity,” celebrated frontiersman and congressman Davy Crockett, was known far and wide for his colorful stories and fiddle playing.

As the 19th century progressed, Nashville grew to become a national center for music publishing. The first tour around the world by a musical act was by the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Nashville’s Fisk University. His efforts helped fund the school’s mission to educate freed slaves after the Civil War, and also put Nashville on the map as a world center for music.

In 1897, a group of Confederate veterans chose Nashville as the site of a large gathering. The event was held in the old tabernacle that would later become known as the Ryman Auditorium. So many former Confederate soldiers came to town that a new balcony was built inside the tabernacle to accommodate their large numbers. It was nicknamed “The Confederate Gallery”, a designation that is still visible today, as Ryman continues to host a variety of musical events.

Even before the Ryman was known as the home of the Grand Ole Opry downtown, it already enjoyed a national reputation. Enrico Caruso, John Phillip Sousa, and the Vienna Orchestra delivered impressive performances that earned the Ryman the nickname “Carnegie Hall of the South.” The unrivaled acoustic qualities of the Ryman continue today: it has received Pollstar magazine’s prestigious “Theater of the Year” award two years in a row as the best venue in the country to experience live music.

In 1925, the establishment of radio station WSM and the launch of the broadcast to be called the Grand Ole Opry further secured Nashville’s reputation as a music center and brought about its enduring nickname of Music City. The Opry, which still performs live every week, is America’s longest-running radio show, in continuous production for 80 years. It ignited the careers of hundreds of country stars and lit the fuse for Nashville to become a geographic hub for touring and recording. The modern empire of Music Row, a collection of recording studios, record labels, entertainment offices, and other music-related businesses, populates the area around South 16th and 17th avenues.

In recent years, cable television broadcasts the stars and music of Music City to the world. Nashville Network, CMT and GAC took country music to a new level of acclaim and recognition. The gospel music series hosted by Nashville’s Bobby Jones on Black Entertainment Television is now the longest-running show on cable.

Nashville has also become a center for pop, rock, bluegrass, jazz, classical, contemporary Christian, blues, and soul music. Artists like Matchbox Twenty, India.Arie, Bon Jovi and Jewel, among many others, have come to Music City to write and record, and names like Michael McDonald and Donna Summer have chosen to call Nashville home.

The newly constructed Schermerhorn Symphony Center, home to the renowned Grammy Award-winning Nashville Symphony Orchestra, anchors the downtown end of the newly designated Music Mile, a symbolic stretch of road connecting the $120 million Symphony Center with the music district. of Music Row, the vibrant new entertainment venues on Demonbruen Street, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Music City Walk of Fame and Museum, and the Nashville Arena. The Music Mile perfectly illustrates how the music of the Music City is, in fact, a common thread in Nashville’s business, cultural and entertainment sectors.

Nashville’s connection to music is second to none, and its reputation as Music City has been consistently proven for more than 200 years. Welcome to the most musical city in the world. Music City – the only music city!