Nashville's music industry

Nashville has earned its reputation as "Music City" through more than two centuries of musical development, commercial innovation, and cultural production. Known as "Music City," Nashville has long been a vibrant hub for music, a reputation that began to take shape as early as the late 1700s, when the city's first settlers celebrated their arrival on the shores of the Cumberland River with fiddle tunes and buck dancing. From those informal origins, the city grew into one of the most consequential music capitals on earth — standing alongside New York, Los Angeles, and London as a globally recognized center of the recording industry. With more than 190 recording studios, over 3,000 working musicians, and live music every night of the week, the Nashville region's concentration of musicians and music businesses is the highest in the nation, with music industry activity as much as 30 times greater than the national average — and more than 10 times greater than New York or Los Angeles.

Early History and Musical Roots

By the 1800s, Nashville had become a center for music publishing. One of the city's earliest musical triumphs came with the Fisk Jubilee Singers from Fisk University, whose 1871 tour raised funds to support the school's mission of educating formerly enslaved people. Their performance for the Queen of England helped establish Nashville's global reputation as a city of music, marking the beginning of Nashville's pivotal role in shaping American music.

The title "Music City" was popularized in 1925 when a local radio announcer called the city "Music City, U.S.A." during a broadcast, but the nickname predates that broadcast by more than 50 years: the Fisk Jubilee Singers' 1873 European tour played a pivotal role in establishing Nashville's reputation. Queen Victoria reportedly remarked that the singers must hail from a "music city," further cementing the city's musical identity.

Founded by the "King of Country Music" Roy Acuff and songwriter Fred Rose, Acuff-Rose Publications was Nashville's first music publishing company. Acuff-Rose published hundreds of landmark songs, including Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman," and the Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye Love."

Decca's Paul Cohen became the first A&R man to record regularly in Nashville, recording Ernest Tubb and Red Foley in August 1947. That same year, the Nashville studios had their first "million seller" when the Francis Craig Orchestra recorded "Near You" at the Ryman Auditorium. The song became the theme song of Milton Berle's Texaco Theater show. In 1947, it was named Billboard's number one song of the year, effectively launching the Nashville recording industry.

The Grand Ole Opry and the Rise of Country Music

In 1925, the establishment of radio station WSM and its launch of the broadcast called the Grand Ole Opry further secured Nashville's reputation as a musical center. It all started in 1925 when an announcer on WSM introduced Uncle Jimmy Thompson, a fiddle player, as the first performer on a new show called "The WSM Barn Dance." Since then, the Opry has launched countless country music careers, including those of Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Bill Anderson.

The Ryman Auditorium, Nashville's most famous music venue, was built in 1892 by riverboat captain Tom Ryman and originally called the "Union Gospel Tabernacle." When it opened, it was the largest auditorium south of the Ohio River and quickly became known as the "Carnegie Hall of the South," attracting musicians and fans worldwide. In 1943, Lula Naff brought the Grand Ole Opry to the Ryman every weekend, where it stayed until 1974. In 1974, the Grand Ole Opry moved from Ryman Auditorium into its new home, the Opry House, where it resides to this day.

A significant moment in Ryman's history came in December 1945, when Bill Monroe played his mandolin with Lester Flatt on guitar, Chubby Wise on fiddle, and Howard Watts on bass, creating a new genre of bluegrass music on the famous stage. Banjo player Earl Scruggs later joined the group.

After 1946, the Grand Ole Opry dominated country music as the result of its network exposure on NBC and the decline of its major competitor, the National Barn Dance on Chicago's WLS. Talent flooded into Nashville to perform on the Opry's stage, and the recording labels and publishers that followed in their wake transformed the city into a full-fledged industry cluster.

Music Row and the Recording Industry

Brothers Owen and Harold Bradley bought a house at 804 16th Avenue South and turned it into the first recording studio — with an adjoining Quonset hut — on what is now known as Music Row. Music Row began developing in 1954, when the first commercially successful recording studios and music offices were established along 16th Avenue South. By the early 1960s, many national labels were completing a significant share of their country releases in Music Row studios, and the district expanded rapidly as record labels, publishers, and producers concentrated their operations there, helping Nashville emerge as a major center for country music recording and music publishing.

The nascent industry set up shop in Nashville's Music Row along 16th and 17th Avenue, home to legendary RCA Studio B, where Elvis recorded 260 songs, including his first number one hit, "Heartbreak Hotel," in 1956.

The studio district also gave rise to what became known as the Nashville Sound. The Nashville Sound is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the 1950s in Nashville, Tennessee. It replaced the dominance of rough honky tonk music with "smooth strings and choruses," "sophisticated background vocals," and "smooth tempos" associated with traditional pop. The Nashville Sound was pioneered by staff at RCA Victor, Columbia Records, and Decca Records in Nashville, Tennessee. RCA Victor manager, producer, and musician Chet Atkins, and producers Steve Sholes, Owen Bradley, and Bob Ferguson, along with recording engineer Bill Porter, were central to its invention.

From the 1970s through the 1990s, Music Row developed into a dense hub for recording, publishing, management, and artist services across multiple genres. The district continued to attract studios, songwriters, producers, and industry organizations, reinforcing its role as the center of Nashville's commercial music activity.

Bob Dylan's decision to record in Nashville — making Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding, and Nashville Skyline there — was a clarion call to artists of all stripes. In short order, Joan Baez, The Byrds, Neil Young, and many others were making music in Tennessee.

The Country Music Association was founded to spread the word about country music. In addition to combating the 1950s rock 'n' roll era, the organization created the CMA Awards, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and the city's signature event, the CMA Music Festival.

Diversity of Genres

While Nashville is most closely associated with country music, its musical culture has never been limited to a single genre. Around the same time that the Grand Ole Opry was flourishing, Jefferson Street was quickly becoming a hub of music and entertainment in the rhythm and blues scene. In the 1960s, Jimi Hendrix and Billy Cox held residency at Club Del Morocco. Jefferson Street also hosted the likes of Otis Redding, Etta James, and Little Richard, who were frequent performers at the area's nightclubs. Jefferson Street is credited with establishing Nashville's R&B music scene.

Contemporary Christian music, connected to the conservative political movement, also grew exponentially during the 1990s. Benefiting from the fact that Walmart and other mass merchandisers stocked the CDs, the genre became widely known and accepted. Artists such as Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Kirk Franklin, and Yolanda Adams sold as well as rock or country acts. In Nashville, the gospel music industry employed more people than the country industry primarily because the Christian distribution system was housed in Nashville.

Country music was never more profitable or more dominant than during the mid-1990s, as more radio stations played country music than any other format; many artists regularly sold over a million copies of an album; the genre's share of overall music sales rose to almost 20 percent; and stars such as Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Shania Twain, Tim McGraw, Clint Black, Reba McEntire, and Billy Ray Cyrus emerged to compete with rock stars in recording sales and concert audiences.

The Nashville region is home to some of the world's most popular entertainers, including Tim McGraw, Jack White, Taylor Swift, Sheryl Crow, The Black Keys, Paramore, and Kings of Leon.

Economic Impact

Nashville's music industry functions as a major economic engine for the city and the surrounding region. A comprehensive study of Nashville's music and entertainment industry, completed in conjunction with the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, shows it has a $10 billion annual economic impact on the Nashville region. The music industry helps create and sustain more than 56,000 jobs in the Nashville area, supporting more than $3.2 billion of labor income annually.

In 2012, there were over 8,300 music-industry jobs in the Nashville area, with an average annual earning of $72,382. Nashville's music industry contributes $5.5 billion to the local economy, for a total output of $9.7 billion within the Nashville area.

Music and entertainment in Nashville is a true industry cluster — not merely a place with live performance, not merely a place with recognizable performance stars, not merely a place with business attached to media. Nashville is a center of music business with breadth and depth.

Nashville's infrastructure supports this economic weight. The city's educational institutions, such as the Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business at Belmont University, are pivotal in nurturing the next generation of music professionals. Belmont University, situated at the heart of Nashville, plays a crucial role in the music industry by providing comprehensive education and hands-on experience in music business, performance, and production. Aside from Belmont, Nashville houses several other institutions that contribute to music education, including Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music and the Nashville School of the Arts, ensuring a continuous influx of talented individuals into the music industry.

With the advent of digital music, Nashville's industry has shifted significantly. The digital era has introduced new production methods and distribution channels, democratizing music creation and consumption. Nashville has embraced these changes, with local artists and studios utilizing cutting-edge technology to produce music that reaches a global audience. Despite the move towards digital, Nashville's music scene remains vibrant, with traditional recording studios adapting to integrate digital recording techniques. This blend of old and new keeps the city at the forefront of the music industry.