Nashville is not just the home of country music, its the birthplace of a specific genre of country music called the "Nashville Sound" or Countrypolitan.
According to Wikipedia (where I get most of my information about the world), the Nashville Sound popped up in the 50s, replacing Honky Tonk as the dominant country sound.
Music producers came up with the new sound by replacing the fiddles and steel guitars of Honky Tonk with smoother elements - string sections, backup singers and a crooning lead vocalist. The Nashville Sound also has a "pop" music feel, where you can really feel the beat. The idea was to move country music to the main stream.
The Nashville Sound was basically an attempt by music producers to make their records more popular - and thus more profitable.
The Nashville Sound is the grand-daddy of today's country music style. Its ironic that there are so many people who do not like country music, when it evolved from an attempt to make it more popular.
As I was putting together music for this blog that would represent the Nashville Sound, I found a lot of songs that are mainstream classics. Rhinestone Cowboy by Glen Campbell, Crazy by Patsy Cline, Tennessee Waltz by Chet Atkins, The Most Beautiful Girl by Charlie Rich and much more.
Listen to a few of the songs that I've posted. You may be surprised to know that you actually grew up listening to one or two songs that represent the Nashville Sound - and you may actually like what you hear. Let me know if you know of any other songs that I should include.
A lot of these songs are very naustalgic for me. I can remember on several occasions riding in the car with Grandma and Grandpa - listening to this kind of music.
So how does this help me understand Nashville? I always thought of Nashville music and culture as being outside the mainstream - or at least the style of music that I like. Now that I've been digging deeper into the music that made it "Music City USA," I realize that maybe I can relate a little better to Nashville than I thought.
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