Nashville

Music City U.S.A.

Nashville is best known as the Mecca for country music all over the world. Visited by musicans of every type the city has a long tradition. Famous musicans such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix recorded here.

Radio came to Nashville in 1922 and only three years later the National Life and Insurance Company built a station called WSM- We Shield Millions, the company´s motto. George D. Hay, a announcer from a big Chicago radio station, came back to his Tenneessean roots, trying to duplicate the great success of Chicago´s National Barn Dance Show. So Barn Dance, Nashville´s version, was born. Hay pushed the first music playing band, wearing business suits, in a cornball direction. The band, led by Dr. Humphrey Bate, who was a Vanderbilt educated physican, became “The Possum Hunters”. Other groups were given similar names such as “The Fruit Jar Drinkers” and “The Dixie Cloudhoppers” and the die was cast: Country equaled corny. In 1927 Hay called his show “The Grand Ole Opry”. The show ´s popularity grew and the management allowed their stars to tour – but insisted to be available for the show every Saturday night. Every week they had to pick up new songs, work out new deals and form new bands.

The group of songwriters and publishers residencing in Nashville grew and the music industry grew too. During World War 2 dispering Southeners all over the country and the world demanded the music they loved and exposed others as well. More and more people wanted to see the country stars and the Opry moved into Nashville´s Ryman Auditorium in the middle of the war. Bing Croby and Tony Bennett, mainstream entertainers, began recording songs that were first heard in Tennessee.

Though the music industry grew it still wasn´t exepted in Nashville. In 1943 Roy Acuff threw a party to celebrate his show is being carried in 129 stations coast to coast. He invited Governor Prentice Cooper to attend his festivities, but he declined that he didn´t want to be part of a circus and added that Acuff was bringing disgrace to the state by making Tennessee the hillbilly capital of the U.S.A.. all this time country music was called folk music, too. Billboard magazine finally gave its “American folk tunes” with a new name: “country and western”. Nashville lost ground as rock´n´ roll ascendet and young peoplebegan asserting their musical tastes. In an effort to make country more mainstream, producers such as Chet Atkins created the “Nashville sound” , which means that singers were backed with soft choruses or violins-not fiddles anymore and country music was heading uptown. The Grand Ole Opry moved to Opryland in 1974 and television shows began to feature country music.

Country Music Association

Nashville remains the center of the country music empire. The Country Music Association (CMA)with approximately 7000 members world wide was formed in 1958. The CMA promotes country music and for this they startd to celebrate the today well known CMA Award Show in 1967. The first show was private and only for members but from year to year it becomes more famous. The Entertainer of the Year Election has been broadcasted live by NBC from 1968 to 1971. Since 1972 the show has been broadcasted by CBS. Because of CMA country music plays on more radio stations than any other form of American music, with 2613 stations broadcasting full-time and over 400 radio stations outside North America program country music to more than 34 million listeners in 32 countries.

The Country Music Hall Of Fame

The Country Music Hall of Fame was constructed as a showplace in honor of those who pioneered the art form known as country music and is operated by the country Music Foundation.Since the Hall of Fame´s induction in 1961, more than sixty members have been have been inducted into this prestigious group. Here you get to know everything: the who is who of country music, famous songwriters and music publishers, film and television stars and many information about those, who have worked tiressly behind the scenesas industry buisness leaders. But the Hall of Fame Museum itself offers a remarkable journey through the history of this truly American musical art form.The numerous displays contain personal items from famous country stars, such as stage costums, clothes, musical instruments, and other historic items.