Nashville is the new Austin. Or so it is said…

Knoxweird is the new Ashville.

Chattanooga is the old Nashville.

And we are our parents, ie suckers. This is crap. PR. Public Relations. Tennessee has more PR whores per capita than anywhere on the Planet. Instead of selling laundry detergent now they sell cities.

Be smarter than your parents. Don’t fall for it. It is not about image, it is about communities.

The best thing you can do is ignore the PR tools. They have a short half life and will be replaced soon be more irritating and stupid “experts”.

We are Tennessee. Unique. Like no other. Tell them to kiss your ass. They should be so lucky as to be Tennesseans.

This sort of thing has been going on a very long time. There has always been tension between “Music City USA”(which did NOT come from country music, BTW),and the “Athens of the South”, and whatever image certain self-consciuos Nashvillians perceive as more metropolitan.
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But, I’m afraid the old labels will die away soon. SO many people have moved to Nashville, it just isn’t the same city I grew up in. (I know that makes me sound old)
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Because so many transplants have come from so many places, they bring with them their own cultures; hopefully, over time, all these newcomers can blend with us oldsters and from it will emerge a new, never-before-seen culture/image.
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That is my hope, at least.

>>But isn’t it cooler to know who you are and wear it proudly, rather than trying to be everything else instead?

“But isn’t it cooler to know who you are and wear it proudly, rather than trying to be everything else instead?”

Amen. I heard that Bob Clement wants to make a bid for the Olympics in like 2020. Do we really need/want that? Wouldn’t that make Nashville more like “the new Atlanta”? I say we send Bob Clement to Beijing for the Olympics next year — on a one-way ticket.

And, this reminds me:

“Athens of the South”

Do the Greeks call Athens “The Nashville of the Mediterranean?”

I’m going with, “even if it’s tongue-in-check, it’s still stupid.”

I tweeted it, but I guess I could say it here, too: Nashville the new LA? No, it’s the old Las Vegas.

was there some survey in some business magazine about 12 months ago that named Nashville as a promising fertile ground for startup ventures?

Because it seems like all of a sudden we have all these party-promoter types flooding the zone with their hipster hype, fun sexy time parties and largely empty “business” ideas.

Slarti said>“Music City USA”(which did NOT come from country music, BTW),

Yes, Slarti said that….ahem…David Cobb, who was a DJ at WSM radio coined the phrase, or is credited with it.

Nashville needs to hold its head high. The best thing my parents ever did for us was move us here from LA. Thanks, Mom and Dad.

I always thought when they said “Athens of the South” they were referring to the explosion of musical acts out of Athens, GA in the late 80’s (REM, B-52s, etc) which always left me scratching my head since Georgia is kind of, you know, south of us.

It made more sense. I certainly don’t see many resemblances between Nashville and the birthplace of democracy.

hopefully your songs are better then this thread

Sista, maybe this is one of those weirdly disputed things, like who invented the curveball. The story I’ve always heard was this:
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When the Fisk Jubilee Singers performed for Queen Victoria, she was so moved that she said “Certainly you come from a city of music”.
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However, a quick search, and I can’t find that quote, so maybe it’s legend. I’ll look some more.

Kat: care to list out what you perceive to be these largely hollow business ideas?

Slarti, I have been told the same story. I can’t find a version of it that’s more than 30 years old, though, so I think it’s an invention of the ’70s.

When the Fisk Jubilee Singers performed for Queen Victoria, she was so moved that she said “Certainly you come from a city of music”.
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However, a quick search, and I can’t find that quote, so maybe it’s legend. I’ll look some more.

It sounds like legend to me.

Not today.

TC wrote:

hopefully your songs are better then this thread

Sadly, I don’t think they are. But I’m cribbing heavily from this thread and writing a song about it right now. I’m going to pitch it to Alan Jackson.

But I’m cribbing heavily from this thread and writing a song about it right now.

Bonus points of the song has “fun sexy time” “fisk jubilee singers” and “I tweeted it”

Songs about this kinda do well.

I don’t know the name of it, but I’m partial to that song where the dude moves out to LA and his girlfriend keeps imploring him to come back saying she’s the “number one fan of the man from Tennessee”.

I generally prefer that people stake their own identity and not try to carbon copy the kids (or city) they think are “really cool”.

So I like that song and I like Nashville for its Nashvilleness.

I’ve never heard the Fisk story. I’ve always heard it credited to Cobb.

Doesn’t AJ write his own songs?

Kat, how does a woman of such otherwise practically impeccable taste admit that she likes “Please Come to Boston”? It’s on my short list of worst songs ever written, sung, or played on the radio.

Kat, how does a woman of such otherwise practically impeccable taste admit that she likes “Please Come to Boston”?

But it’s so sweet! She’s his number one fan! Even though he can’t settle down…

Doesn’t AJ write his own songs?

Not all. I know Harley Allen has written several Alan Jackson has covered. And the one I was vaguely referencing (”Gone Country”) was written by Bob McDill.

Er, sorry Nashville. You’re too hopelessly uncool to be the new anything, except maybe the new Atlanta.

Kat, how does a woman of such otherwise practically impeccable taste admit that she likes “Please Come to Boston”?

IIRC, in an earlier thread about sad country songs Kat expressed a like for Harry Chapin’s “Taxi” song, so I’m going to question the “impeccable taste” … at least where music is concerned. No offense, but “Taxi” and “Boston” are my two least favorite songs ever!

I always thought when they said “Athens of the South” they were referring to the explosion of musical acts out of Athens, GA in the late 80’s

Reference to the 20+ universities in the area, actually.
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When I moved here from Dallas in the laste 80s, there was a bar (where Bou’n'd’r'y is now) called Third Coast. I was confused because Dallas was also calling itself the third coast.

At least Nashville has a navigable river.I think we’re the new McMinnville.

@CNB - that’s funny, because my favorite cafe when I lived in Chicago was called Third Coast, too. I always thought it was a little funny anyway because there already sort of is a third coast in the U.S.: the Gulf coast. So really, shouldn’t these cafes and bars be calling themselves Fourth Coast? But then most people would probably be all, “Fourth Coast? What’s the third one?”

I seem to remember while at Oberlin some folks referring to northern Ohio along the lake as “the North coast.” Meh.

Those whacky Oberlin kids!

Although I do think Cedar Point played a hand in that. For awhile they were calling their Northern Ohio park “the fun coast” or “The coaster coast” or “the thrill coast” or some such goofcakery.

Kat, I think it was more the wacky Cleveland people than the Obies. Too little sunshine or something.