Nashville, commonly known as "Music City" boasts an upbeat nightlife, while offering a diverse selection of genres and experiences within their creative music sector.
"Arts, culture, and creativity reflect a city’s spirit and values—they are its pulse. Since its founding, arts and cultural participation have been central to Nashville’s history and economy livelihood" (A General Plan for Nashville & Davidson County, p.1) The need for economic development evolved in 1989 when the Wall Street reported on the "relative underperformance of the Nashville market. In response, "business leaders initiated Partnership 2000 to promote the region to businesses as a functional region featuring many premium assets and attributes" (Harper, p.6). The growth of Nashville's creative sectors helped the city serve as a hub which in return helped the region grow entirely. Music has been an anchor for the city brand and economy for decades. Music’s infrastructure created an informal culture of sharing and collaboration between creative people. The music sector of Nashville generates social capital, new ideas, and community identity. "The music industry has served as a magnet attracting visual artists, actors, fashion designers, print makers, and coders to this “Athens of the South” (A General Plan for Nashville & Davidson County, p. 1).
"After the Great Recession, unemployment levels fell more quickly than they did nationally. In September 2012, the city’s unemployment rate was 6.6%, down from 8.6% just a year prior and among the lowest rates since the start of the Great Recession" (Harpert, p.7). The diversity and unique structure of the economy is a strength that helped Nashville weather the Great Recession better than most regions. "The development, design, and production of for-profit music and nonprofit cultural activities account for $13 billion in economic activity, or 12 percent of Nashville’s overall economy per year. This makes it the region’s second largest economic base, led only by health care and ahead of advanced manufacturing" (A General plan for Nashville, p. 72)."Music anchors a more diverse network of creative industries including artisanal food, craft spirits and beer, fashion, film, and transmedia that are growing the Music City brand and emerging as viable industries and sources of jobs in this traditional “music town.” (A General plan for Nashville, p. 72)
Nashville’s tourism and hospitality industry is driven by cultural destinations like the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and the Grand Ole Opry, historic destinations like The Hermitage and sites significant to the civil rights Movement, and districts like 5th Avenue of the Arts. Cultural tourism alone generates over $6 billion annually and 4,500 jobs. More and more people are traveling to Nashville for the music, but staying for the full cultural experience. (A General plan for Nashville, p. 72)
The key relationship between Nashville's music sector and economic development serves as a vital role for sustainability. To implicate this framework into Calgary's identity would allow the city to attract tourists, which in return would lead to exposure in all creative sectors. With Calgary's recent economic downtown and now challenge to re-establish the economy, using the creative economy and furthermore, the music industry, will help Calgary take the appropriate steps moving forward.
(SoMeT: A New Model for Destination Marketing, 2015)
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