1925 – Present
Nashville: Music City
About Nashville: Music City
Nashville became the capital of country music when WSM radio launched the Grand Ole Opry in 1925. Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, and Johnny Cash recorded on Music Row, the Ryman Auditorium became the Mother Church of Country Music, and Chet Atkins' polished Nashville Sound took the genre to pop radio in the 1960s. Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson wrote their first hits here, a teenage Taylor Swift signed her first deal on Music Row, and the city's honky-tonks on Lower Broadway remain the loudest street in American music.