“It’s like high school with money. We all know each other. We know the spouses. We know the dogs. Our kids go to school together.” That’s how Sony Music Nashville CEO Gary Overton describes Nashville’s tight-knit music community in the Time.com article extolling the reasons new residents are flocking to Music City.
Touting Music City as “The South’s Red-Hot Town,” the article offers several stats cementing Nashville’s enviable status. Nashville had the strongest employment growth of any large city since the Great Recession; it is the second-fastest-growing U.S. city in 2013. The cost of living is cheaper than the U.S. average by 13 percent, and office vacancies fell from 12.3 percent to 10.4 percent last year, marking one of the 10 biggest declines in U.S. markets in 2013.
According to the article, the city’s economic success stands on what Tommy Frist, a son of Hospital Corporation of America’s (HCA’s) founding Frist family, calls “the four buckets” of employment stability in health care, entertainment, higher education and government. In addition, there is the livability factor. “Nashville is a soulful city in a way that Charlotte or Atlanta just don’t seem to be,” says Frist. “The vibe is cool, but it’s warm and comforting too.”
Many prominent Nashville residents contributed to the article, including Taylor Swift, Belmont University’s Don Cusic, and Vanderbilt chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos.
The article appears in the March 17, 2014 issue of TIME.
About the Author
Jessica Nicholson serves as the Managing Editor for MusicRow magazine. Her previous music journalism experience includes work with Country Weekly magazine and Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) magazine. She holds a BBA degree in Music Business and Marketing from Belmont University. She welcomes your feedback at jnicholson@musicrow.com.View Author Profile
