Link: The Gentrification of Nashville
There are of course still many honest, hard working people there, and I have friendships with some of them. But the place has been undergoing a drastic transformation.
I remember years ago being shocked upon going backstage at the new Opryland, after having visited the old Ryman on various occasions since I was a teen (when I would travel to Tennessee to see Mary Reeves) and even the new Opry house when it first opened. I was amazed by the diamond-studded stars and the beautiful women in fur coats and expensive jewelry hanging around backstage, decked out in clothes that you'd previously only see in Palm Beach or on Rodeo (pronounced Ro-Day-O) Drive in Beverly Hills.
Where were the cowboys? I wondered...
Country music was being replaced by a synthetic new kind of sound performed by untalented people who had to depend on "auto tune" to sing on pitch and who, despite wearing cowboy hats, probably had never been near a horse and would be frightened to get on one of them.
Things have gotten A LOT worse since.
The New York TImes has taken note of this in an interesting story which you can read by clicking below. When you get to the page, be sure to click on the right hand side as well to read the interesting comments from people who live in Nashville, describing a situation that is much worse than what The Times writer even cited.
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