This isn’t some sort of cold hard truth. It’s just the boring truth. Nashville, aka Music City, wouldn’t be a city without people doing real work. Here’s to those people, after a quick tour of what you already know.
The Music
The American music industry reaches every nook and cranny of the country, but three cities still rise above the rest: New York, Los Angeles, and, of course, Nashville. The last one hugs the Cumberland River in the middle of Tennessee, somehow having morphed from a random port on the outflow of the Appalachian Mountains into the epicenter of country music.
Musicians from all over have flocked to this place to jumpstart their careers. You’ve probably heard of a few.
Like Johnny Cash.
Dolly Parton.
Taylor Swift.
And on and on.
Nashville is home to The District, that endless collection of honky-tonks flooded by tourists hoping to live a cliché. The Country Music Hall of Fame is in the mix, as are the Grand Ole Opry, Gibson (the guitar manufacturer), and a host of record labels.
You get the point.
But Nashville is the 21st-largest city and 35th-largest metropolitan area by population in the US, meaning the vast majority of its residents couldn’t play “Jingle Bells” on a recorder.
This is what they do instead…
Healthcare
Yawn. The largest employer in Nashville is Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Even worse, HCA Healthcare, one of the world’s largest for-profit hospital operators, is based in the Country Music Capital.
Prison Work
That’s right. The Nashville area is home to CoreCivic, one of the largest private corrections companies in the US. The key to their success is keeping their prisons full!
Government Work
Contrary to my theory that good music doesn’t come from government towns, Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, is home to a dizzying array of government jobs. These land at all three levels—local, state, and federal.
Vehicular Stuff
Nissan and General Motors have large manufacturing plants in the area, and Bridgestone—the Japanese tire manufacturer—has its North American headquarters nearby. To top it off, Tractor Supply Company is based in the Athens of the South.
Religious Stuff
A bunch of Protestant denominations are headquartered in Nashvegas and run their publishing divisions from the city. It follows that Thomas Nelson, one of the world’s largest Bible publishers, and Gideons International, one of the world’s largest Bible distributors, are based in town. And going back to music, if you’re into Jesus-centric tunes, you’ve found the mecca.
Other Crap
You know, tech, finance, insurance, and all that.
So the next time you want to refer to Nashville as Music City, consider Nurse City, Prison City, Bureaucrat City, Tire City, or Bible City instead.
