Nashville. Music. City.

Interesting national notes, so to speak, on Nashville as Music City.

I've always pointed out to visitors or those with only stereotypical perceptions of my hometown, that while Nashville is the home of country music, it is considered "Music City, USA," not "Country Music City, USA."

From Andrew Sullivan/The Daily Dish/The Atlantic: The Nashville Effect.

In 1970, Nashville was a minor center focused on country music. By 2004, only New York and L.A. boasted more musicians. The extent of its growth was so significant that when my research team and I charted the geographic centers of the music industry from 1970 and 2004 using a metric called a location quotient, Nashville was the only city that registered positive growth. In effect, it sucked up all the growth in the music industry.

While Nashville may not possess the size and scale of New York City, the celebrity-making allure of L.A., the top-40 hit-making appeal of Atlanta, or even the critical cachet of Austin or Montreal, across many genres it possesses the world's best writing and studio talent and the best recording infrastructure. Today, it's home to over 180 recording studios, 130 music publishers, 100 live music clubs, and 80 record labels. It's turned into the Silicon Valley of the music business, combining the best institutions, the best infrastructure, and the best talent. And, like Silicon Valley's broad reach across many high-tech fields from hardware to software, biotech to green energy, Nashville has become the center for multiple musical genres from country and gospel to rock and pop, attracting top talent from across the United States and the globe.

Now that knowing that, just take a glance at the music page over at the Nashville Scene. That's a lot going on. (Man, I do miss that. It's exhausting to try to take it all in, but it's such good stuff.)

And take a real read over here at the Scene's excellent and thorough coverage of the music industry: A power shift within Nashville's musicians union signals changing times on Music Row.

It's a fascinating read if you are interested in the artist business of the music business.



(Note: If you wondering about the photo, that's me and my old buddy Mike at Christmastime. Mike recently became the Associate Publisher of the Nashville Scene, which also oversees/publishes Nfocus. Love Mike. And his partner Kelly.)