Music Row
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Music Row is an area just to the southwest of Downtown Nashville, Tennessee that is home to hundreds of businesses related to the country music, gospel music, and contemporary Christian music industries. Centered around 16th and 17th Avenues South (called Music Square East and Music Square West, respectively, within the Music Row area), along with several side streets, Music Row is widely considered the heart of Nashville's entertainment industry. In this area, one will find the offices of numerous record labels, publishing houses, music licensing firms, recording studios, video production houses, radio networks, and radio stations. Sometimes the words Music Row are used as a nickname for the country music industry as a whole.
Historical sites such as RCA's famed Studio B, where hundreds of famous musicians have recorded, are situated on Music Row. Country music entertainers Roy Acuff and Chet Atkins are memorialized with streets named in their honor in the area. The Country Music Hall of Fame was once located at the corner of Music Square East and Division Street, but the building has since been torn down and the museum moved to a new state-of-the-art building eleven blocks away in Downtown Nashville in 2001. One area of Music Row, along Demonbreun Street, was once littered with down-market tourist attractions and vanity "museums" of various country music stars. These began to disappear in the late 1990s after the closing of Opryland USA theme park (and subsequent reduction of tourist traffic) and the announced move of the Hall of Fame. The strip sat largely vacant for a few years, but has been recently redeveloped with a number of upscale restaurants and bars serving the Downtown and Music Row areas.
At the confluence of Demonbreun Street, Division Street, 16th Avenue South, and Music Square East is the "Music Row Roundabout," a circular intersection designed to accommodate a continuous flow of traffic. Flanking the intersection to the west is Owen Bradley Park, a very small park dedicated to notable songwriter, performer, and publisher Owen Bradley. Within the park is a life-size statue of Bradley behind a piano. Inside the roundabout is a large statue ("Musica") depicting nude dancers. The statue was the subject of a controversy upon its 2002 unveiling, spurred by religious, parenting groups, and other organizations favoring censorship who were offended by the portrayal of the nude human forms in the statue. The statue has largely been accepted in the community, although among locals, "Musica" is sometimes referred to as "The Nekkid Statues."
At the other end of Music Row, across Wedgewood Avenue sits the Belmont University campus, and Vanderbilt University is also adjacent to the area. Belmont is of particular note because of its Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business (CEMB), the only college of entertainment/music business in the world, and a major program in commercial music performance.
The district is the subject of a number of songs, including the 1973 Dolly Parton song "Down on Music Row," 1982's "16th Avenue" by Lacy J. Dalton, and the George Strait and Alan Jackson collaboration "Murder on Music Row" from 2000.
Hank Williams III, a popular country/rock performer, often references Music Row as well as Nashville in general, in a derogatory manner due to its reliance on commercially popular acts.
