![]() “I was literally just trying to find a safe space for myself to exist in the music industry. “From the onset of this, it was never my intention at all to be any type of activist,” Holly G told Rolling Stone. Sug Daniels performs during a Black Opry live event in Nashville. Recent years have shown some evidence of incremental shifts in the right direction as the conversation around race in Nashville has intensified, both from inside the industry and out. For every Charley Pride or Darius Rucker who’s been afforded institutional support, there are hundreds of Linda Martells and Wendy Motens who haven’t. The country music industry has, to put it mildly, a complicated relationship with race. We’ve created kind of a facsimile of country music.” A More Inclusive Country “But you’re not getting that authentic experience. Palm, whose org is trying to change the revenue model for Broadway musicians from tips to a living wage, is more diplomatic. It’s a shame the city let the soul and swagger of a downtown music scene that supported original songs slip away for a price tag.” “I’ve joked that when I become mayor I will mandate a pedal steel in every band. “When I moved to Nashville 10 years ago, playing downtown was a thrill: You’d park nearby, sometimes even on Broadway itself, set up your gear and jam through Merle Haggard and Buck Owens requests,” says Adam Kurtz, a pedal-steel player who performs downtown when not on the road. Working musicians have to search for affordable parking and navigate streets full of slow-moving party vehicles before even starting their four-hour set and passing around the tip jar. Among the reasons given: lack of support from the city and state, and cost of living.Īs it relates to live music, Lower Broadway can be seen as a microcosm of a changing city. In a 2021 survey conducted by the Arts & Business Council, a quarter of Nashville artists said they likely would not remain in the city past the next two to three years. In fact, some artists - not just musicians, but painters, writers, and dancers - say they’re already leaving. Artists just can’t put in the time and effort to hone their craft.” “Because of the cost of living, you can’t spend 10 years here. And I think it’s becoming increasingly difficult to even do that,” says Jill McMillan Palm, executive director of the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville. You really have to grind and hustle, and put in that work to break through. “The maxim has been that Nashville is a 10-year town. Nashville is such a strong community and a beautiful place for when you want to make a stand for who you are and share your art.” and tried to do what I did here, I don’t know where I would be at the moment. So if Stephen Sanchez or the Criticals release this dope new song, we all are going to back it,” says Bullock, who moved the Foxies to Nashville in 2016 after a few years in Brooklyn. “We all write with each other, we all know each other, we all have heard of each other. Julia Bullock, dynamo frontperson for the Foxies, says the artist community has become increasingly close-knit after the pandemic. Bands like Flight Attendant, that want to deliver an experience and have the audience be included in that.”Īt clubs like the East Room, Soft Junk, Drkmttr, and the Basement, which hosts an essential New Faces night every week, bands are demolishing stages and getting intimately close to the crowds - which often include fellow artists. “There are so many writers that are great in the country and Americana world that will tell you what the song is about and the story before the song,” Pierce says, “but I see bands who are more focused on the performance. The difference, he says, is a shift in focus away from overt storytelling toward physical connection. We are plugging into a scene that already existed.” “This kind of sound has been happening for a long time, but it’s gaining speed because the infrastructure for it to succeed is here,” says Oliver Pierce, Jive Talk’s lead singer. Artists such as charismatic vocalist Jake Wesley Rogers (opening for Kesha this fall), TikTok phenomenon Stephen Sanchez, “abcdefu” singer Gayle (fresh off Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour), power trio the Foxies, and avant-garde synth-rock band Jive Talk all represent a once-overlooked segment of Music City. Nashville is synonymous with country music, but a new wave of pop is having its moment. Here are the musical, cultural, and even political developments we’re watching as Music City continues its rapid revolution. As new personalities flock to Nashville, fresh sounds and surprising trends are emerging, providing clues for what the city could look like in 10 years. Tennessee’s cosmopolitan capital has been going through seismic changes, both musically and demographically.
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