Nashville on TV; how Music City is portrayed onscreen
What economic impact do Nashville's tv appearances have on our region?
The ABC drama Nashville coincided with an amazing spike in economic growth for Music City. Since 2012, the year Nashville debuted onscreen, home prices in Nashville have grown 89% and the unemployment rate has plummeted from 6.4% to below 3% at the time of this article. Now that the hit show is over, what were the lasting impacts? And how will Nashville be portrayed on television in the future?
Looking back - the economic impact of Nashville
If you ask Butch Spyridon, CEO of the Nashville Convention and Visitor’s Corp, the show certainly had an impact. In a 2015 Forbes article, Spyridon said, “It has been huge as a marketing asset, it has put an important spotlight on our songwriter community and the cast members have been incredible advocates for us as well.”
Those impacts were not just anecdotal. A survey published in 2014 found that 20% of visitors to Music City were at least partially motivated by the show in their choice to visit Music City. Also, among survey respondents, those who had seen the show stayed longer and spent more money than those that didn’t. The shows stars were integrated into other real-world tourist draws like the CMA Awards, cementing the show’s place in the public perception of Nashville.
Looking back, it’s hard to disentangle the show from the huge increase in tourism to the region over the last 6 or 7 years.
Nashville on TV now
However, Nashville has certainly had an impact on Music City’s pop culture clout. Since the ABC show, it seems public interest in Nashville has exploded. Very Cavallari, an E! reality show that follows Kristin Cavallari and her NFL quarterback husband Jay Cutler, has been filming in Nashville since 2017. Bachelorette Weekend, a show about the bachelorette party industry here in Nashville, premiered on CMT in 2018. Another CMT show that focuses on Nashville, the aptly named Music City, also debuted in 2018.
Other than these reality shows, Nashville has had cameos on the critically acclaimed Master of None, Aziz Ansari’s Netflix series. And who can ignore the very visible NFL Draft in 2019?
What’s coming in the future
Recently, Chamber Member Opry Entertainment Group announced a deal to create their own television channel to push out original, country music content to a wider audience. This will certainly bring more attention, and hopefully tourist dollars to the region.
And Music City's pop culture visibility is coming full circle with the announcement that Nashville will have new life as a Broadway musical. The hospitality industry in Middle Tennessee should be excited about the possibilities these new ventures will bring.