Internationally known as the home of country music, the legacy in Nashville of vibrant music scenes created the music business active today. The early big band days produced the town's first national hit -a pop tune- while many of the classically trained musicians also played in the Opry or WSM resident orchestras during the day and in hotel and society orchestras at night. Union membership often dictated employment opportunities and limitations in membership often restricted participation. The post-war era from 1945-55 produced a vast amount of independent labels, studios, and homegrown performers, away from the unconcerned and insular visions of national industry offices.
Current research focuses on rock and roll in Nashville from 1955-1970, where oral history provides a critical link beyond uncovering lost facts and details. This generation satisfied growing labor demand for talented studio musicians, engineers, and eventually producers. Starting in driveways and ending in nightclubs in seedy Printer's Alley downtown or black nightclubs in North Nashville, these groups include some of the first instances of integrated ensembles in a segregated South. The involvement of young women as songwriters, vocalists, and even industry heads reflected a changing time.
Many members of this generation found roles helping to shape and dictate the “Nashville Sound” production model of country music in the 1960s, while coming from a rock and roll and rhythm and blues background. Combining oral history with a growing archive of material culture from vinyl records and ephemera contextualizes this pool of talented labor at the center of new Nashville output.
With access to the equipment of an industry town, these kids built bands that catapulted them from talent shows to national package tours. This growing archive works to reinvigorate memories of this generation to bring us into the one-room studios, practice rooms, the exchange between musical genres, and the motivations of a scene that changed Music City.
Future growth will extend this model from this 1950-60s youth culture, when similar scenes emerge from the 1980s onward in the shadow of a music industry commonly unreflective of local tastes.