Music Scenes and Self Branding (Nashville and Austin): Music Scenes and Self Branding

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Journal of Popular Music Studies, Volume 28, Issue 3, Pages 334–355
DOI: 10.1111/jpms.12178
Music Scenes and Self Branding
(Nashville and Austin)
Andrea Jean Baker
Monash University
Introduction
The music cities paradigm, noted as the connection “between music, space
and identity, from city scenes to the music of nations,” is interdisciplinary in
nature (Connell and Gibson). Discussed in disciplines such as musicology
(Cohen; Garrett and Oja; Connell and Gibson) and urban studies (Florida),
this paradigm is influenced by “cultures, economics, politics, and technology
of the changing structure and geographies of music at local and global
levels” (Connell and Gibson). Traditionally, the location of music scenes
was “largely a Euro-American construct” (Garrett and Oja 692) and based
in the “superstar music cities” of New York City (NYC), Los Angeles (LA),
and London. Today the ongoing economic and spatial restructuring of the
music industry brought about by the Internet revolution has meant that the
“nation-state” discourse has collapsed. Music is omnipresent, mobile and
appears to have no geographical heart (Garrett and Oja 700). Amidst the
“post-national” (Garrett and Oja 702), mix of music “fixity and fluidity”
(Connell and Gibson 7), vibrant music scenes still cluster in smaller cities
such as Nashville or Austin, which are fast becoming competitors to the
superstar music cities.
Frameworks of Discussion
Research about the music cities paradigm is linked to five key areas.
The first area relates to the political economy, which has been the dominant
discourse because it highlights the financial value of the music industry. On
2 June, 2015 Mastering of a Music City, commissioned by Music Canada,
was the first global industry report of twenty-seven music cities.1The report
included Austin and Nashville and defined a music city as a place with a
“vibrant cultural economy” (Terrill, Hogarth, Clement and Francis 5). On
1 June 2015, the first ever Austin Music Census, a data driven assessment of
Austin’s commercial music economy, commissioned by the City of Austin’s
music department, reported that the city’s night time economy generates
C2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Music Scenes and Self Branding 335
Table 1: UNESCO cities of music
Country Year
Adelaide (Australia) 2015
Varanasi (India) 2015
Liverpool (UK) 2014
Hamamatsu (Japan) 2014
Mannheim (Germany) 2014
Hannover (Germany) 2014
Bogota (Columbia) 2012
Brazzaville (Republic of Congo) 2010
Harbin (China) 2010
Gent (Belgium) 2009
Glasgow (Scotland/UK) 2008
Seville (Spain) 2006
Source: http://en.unesco.org/creative-cities/home.
more than US$1.6 billion annually (Rowling 5). The 2013 Nashville Music
Industry report, commissioned by its Music City Music Council, highlights
that its music scene contributed over US$5.5 billion to the local economy
(Harper, Cotton and Benefield 18).
The second area of discussion examines how cities are claiming the
term, “music city” by way of official accreditation or by self-proclamation.
Since 2006 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation’s (UNESCO), Creative Cities Network, have encouraged cities
to apply for music accreditation.2To be a successful UNESCO City of
music, a city needs to have an excellent background in music-making,
education, community involvement, music heritage and regular high-profile
music events of local and international significance. Table 1 illustrates that
in 2015, there were 12 UNESCO Cities of Music, the majority from Europe.
Aside from those cities awarded UNESCO’s official City of Music
ranking, there are the self-declared “superstar music cities,” like NYC,
LA and London, based on their musical histories, healthy facilities, nonstop
music events and economic power and influence (Florida 1). These superstar
music cities float on the venture capital of the big four record labels (Warner)
Music, Capital Records and Song BMG in NYC and Electric and Musical
Industries (EMI in London) and are the publicity hook for the global music
industry (Florida). On the other hand, smaller cities, such as Nashville and
Austin, have influential music scenes based on a four pronged, analytical
matrix related to musical heritage, originality, innovation, and branding.
The third area of discussion describes how cities, like Nashville
and Austin, have developed “city twinning,” music alliances in an effort
to share “musical culture economy tricks and trades” (Gorden and

336 Andrea Jean Baker
Kane 1). On 28 June, 2012 Toronto, a Canadian city known for its live
music scene, established a “Music City Alliance” with Austin, the self-
proclaimed, “Live Music Capital of the World” (Rayner 1).“The first of its
kind in the world” (Rayner 1), the Toronto and Austin alliance was renewed in
March 2015 (Rowling 5). The alliance evolved out of a March 2012 report
titled, Accelerating Toronto’s Industry Growth, leveraging Best Practices
from Austin (Texas) (Rowling). Learning from the Austin experience,
the Toronto City Council along with Music Canada, unveiled a music-
marketing campaign slogan “4479 Toronto: Music meets world” (Rayner
1). It also established a Toronto “music office” and a “music advisory
board” at city hall. Nashville, known as the global ‘country music’ capital,
has seven sister city alliances.3One example is Nashville’s alliance with
Belfast (capital of Northern Ireland), which resulted in the development
of Belfast/Nashville Songwriters Festival in 2004. The festival was the
first of its kind in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and is said to be
“transformative in terms of cultural impact and economic gain” (Gorden and
Kane 1).
The final area of discussion reflects the need to address the “rather
neglected” research deficit about the “geography of music scenes” (Connell
and Gibson; Florida). This research deficit was noted at recent conferences,
such as the Music Cities convention, which had its inaugural meeting in
Brighton (UK) on 13 May 2015.4Founded by Martin Elbourne and now a
biannual event, the conventions created a tool kit about how to cultivate “a
vibrant and lucrative music” scene (15).5Table 2 illustrates that 22 cities
were profiled at both conventions, and this included Nashville and Austin.
The majority of the cities discussed at the conventions were from Europe,
which is similar to UNESCO’s City of Music list.
Elbourne said that to understand research about music scenes, it
is important to examine its diverse and complex social cultural nature
within a national and global context. However, available reports, such
as the Mastering of a Music City, focused on music economies and the
contemporary, commercial music and failed to move beyond the standard
research. As Table 3 reflects, the report mainly explored the US context
(Terrill et al. 11), which reinforce Charles Garrett’s and Carol Oja’s
suggestion that the United States remains the “imperial incubator” of the
global music industry (691).
The political economic focus on global music cities and the
haphazard quantitative measurement of economic impact, have cast a
shadow over the local cultural mechanisms that sustain music scenes.

Music Scenes and Self Branding 337
Table 2: Global music cities convention (2015)
13 May 2015, Brighton (UK) 25 October, 2015 (Washington DC, USA)
UK
London (England) London (England)
Belfast (Northern Ireland)
Europe
Berlin (Germany) Berlin (Germany)
Mannheim (Germany) Gothenburg (Sweden)
Barcelona (Spain) Norrk¨
oping, Sweden
Groningen (Sweden) Bergen (Norway)
Australia
Adelaide Adelaide
Melbourne Sydney
North America
Canada
Toronto (Ontario) Toronto (Ontario)
Montreal (Quebec) Ottawa (Ontario)
USA Austin (Texas)
LA (California)
Nashville (Tennessee)
New Orleans (Louisiana)
Boston (Massachusetts)
South America
Guadalajara (Mexico)
Africa
Selam (Ethiopia)
As Elbourne said, it is “difficult to gain a clear picture of the music
industry both here and around the world due to a lack of facts and
figures, especially those that are comparable across states and nations”
Table 3: Mastering of a music city report (2015)
UK (2) North America (12)
London Canada (4)
Liverpool Toronto (Ontario)
Europe (6) Montreal (Quebec)
Berlin (Germany) Calgary (Alberta)
Cologne (Germany) Kitchener (Ontario)
Paris (France) USA (8)
Gothenburg (Sweden) New York City (New York)
Stockholm (Sweden) Austin (Texas)
Helsinki (Finland) Nashville (Tennessee)
Australia (3) Memphis (Tennessee)
Adelaide New Orleans (Louisiana)
Melbourne Boston (Massachusetts)
Sydney Chicago (Illinois)
Asia (2) Seattle (Washington)
South Korea South America (2)
Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Bogot´
a (Columbia)
Caracas (Venezuela)

338 Andrea Jean Baker
(15). Based on analysis of in-depth interviews with eight music industry
folk from “recognised music cities” such as Melbourne, Austin and Toronto
(Terrill et al. 1), this paper moves beyond the dominant political economy
discourse and explores “how music practices are connected to social, cultural
[and] geographical characteristics” of cities such as Nashville and Austin
(Cohen 3).
Music Scenes and the Political Economy
Nashville and Austin
US urban economist Richard Florida says that the term “music scene”
was originally used to describe the geographic concentrations of specific
kinds of musical genres that evolved in mid twentieth century across the
United States in musical centers like “New Orleans jazz, Nashville country,
Memphis soul, Detroit Motown or Chicago blues” (3). Over the years there
has been a noted decline of traditional crossroads music scenes in Memphis,
New Orleans and the “Rustbelt city” of Detroit. Since the 1960s musicians
have clustered in the “Sunbelt cities” of Nashville and Austin, where “music
plays a role in the production of individual, collective and local identify”
(Cohen 38). Nashville and Austin bring together the music ecologies of
“musical and business talent (agents, managers, taste-makers, gate-keepers,
critics, and sophisticated consumers) across social networks and the physical
space (neighbourhoods, communities, clubs, recording studios and venues)”
(Florida 6). Nashville and Austin are not only the “settings for music,” but
also “a product of music” (Cohen 35).
The Political Economy of Creative Cities
In 2002, the balancing act of maintaining a music scene was
highlighted by Florida who wrote about the political economy and the
creative city in his seminal book, The Rise of the Creative Class.Florida
defined the creative class as a loose group of intellectuals, artists, think tanks,
analysts, scientists, and academics (38). He described “the three Ts” such as
“talent, technology and tolerance” as indicators of a city that are welcoming
to the creative class (Florida 44). In regards to the first T, Florida said
that technology was a fundamental driver of innovation and the growth of
the knowledge economy. The second T, talent, in Florida’s creative ranking
index is an ingredient of a knowledgeable, educated, skilled and creative
population. The third T in Florida’s creative cities analysis, tolerance was

Music Scenes and Self Branding 339
a less tangible index to measure and linked to lifestyle choices, based on
a “Live and let live motto” (Florida 44). Florida used his methodology of
the three Ts (technology, talent and tolerance) and searched government
statistical reports to quantify and rank creative cities in the United States
according to their creative occupations, bohemian and gay index. He claimed
that over one third of the US population were members of the creative class.
Austin, the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World was Florida’s
poster child of the three Ts.
If the conditions for a music city hinge on Florida’s basic
benchmarks, as opposed to other conditions such as cooperative network
capability, then Matthew Crawford’s criticism that the term creative class
was a subjective, broad and elitist concept, highlights the issues plaguing the
conceptualization of creative cities. Critics of Florida’s work suggest that his
creative cities concept was shallow because of its quantitative approach and
lacked a deep understanding of class, gender and geographical inequalities
(Timberg). To address his critics, in 2012 in his revised edition of his
seminal book, Florida added a forth T to his three T’s of creative cities
index, “Territorial Assets” which relates to the quality of place; and as a
defining factor that makes a city attractive to live in (5). Like the tolerance
index, territorial assets are an intangible index to measure. Both indexes
allude to the usefulness of the place variable and location quotient, but they
need to be explained qualitatively to ensure their validity in the research
sphere.
Qualitatively Researching the Music Scene
This paper adopts a social–cultural focus on the music scenes of
Nashville and Austin by exploring the importance “of place (the physical
environment through which we move) and space (the practice and lived
experience of place)” from a qualitative perspective (Garrett and Oja 709).
Between 2013 and 2015 eight interviews (See Table 4) were conducted
with music industry spokespersons to gauge their descriptive, personal
perspective of these two cities’ scenes. As Garrett and Oja say, “Making
music and listening to it remains among the most ubiquitous and deeply felt
activities in the human experience” (715). The interviews were conducted
when the author attended South by South West (SXSW Inc) in March
2013 and organizing a Global Music Cities panel at SXSW Inc 2014;
as well as from field trips to Austin and Nashville between 2013 and
2015.

340 Andrea Jean Baker
Table 4: List of eight interviewees
Name Country Position
Nick O’Byrne Melbourne (Australia) (1) CEO of Big Sound
Casey Monahan Austin (Texas) (6) CEO Texan Music Office
Don Pitts Austin (Texas) Music officer, City of Austin
Michael Mordecai Austin (Texas) CEO, Fable Records, Board of SXSW
Michael Barnes Austin (Texas) Music journalist, Austin American Statesman
John Wheat Austin (Texas) Archives translator, Centre for American History, University of Texas
Jennifer Houlihan Austin (Texas) Executive Director, Austin Music People
Mike Tanner Toronto (Canada) (1) Toronto’s Music Sector Development Officer

Music Scenes and Self Branding 341
Competing with Superstar Music Cities
Participants agreed that Nashville and Austin are cities where
musicians cluster because the music industry meets the media, technology,
and commercial entertainment (including film) industry (Florida 7). In these
cities there is the music business to supports musicians, such as music
venues, clubs, conservatories and recording studios, so they can make a
living and stake out a music career. Nashville and Austin have links to the
entertainment industry, but are not as strong as the superstar music cities.
As Michael Barnes, a music journalist at the Austin American Statesman
masthead newspaper said, “When you think of the way that music in LA
interacts with the media entertainment industry, and how there are 1000
television shows about movie stars and stuff, we just do not have that kind
of energy in Austin” (Barnes).6Casey Monahan, the former Director at
the Texan Music Office agreed with Barnes: “The major music centres of
the US are NYC and LA and underneath that are the alternative centres, like
Nashville and Austin” (Monahan).7
Mike Tanner, Toronto City Council’s inaugural music officer
who was appointed in March 2015, agreed with Barnes and Monahan
(CIMAMusic). In his former role as Director of Operations for North by
North East (NXNE), an annual music festival held in Toronto, Tanner notes
that “The music industry in the US is centred in NYC and LA” (Tanner).8
The 2013 World Cities Culture Report9(Table 5) highlights that LA had the
most live music venues in the world; London was fourth; while NYC was
fifth (Johnston 157). Austin and Nashville were not mentioned in this report,
but as Table 5 illustrate, these cities have an estimation of 250 and 100 live
music venues, respectively (Pitts). As John Connell and Ross Gibson argue,
in the “ideology of authenticity” of music scenes “live music is paramount”
(29).
Table 5: 2013 World cities report (Live Music venues) (Johnston, 2013: 80)
City Population Venues Venues per Residents
1.LA 10 million 510 1 per 16,380
2. Paris 11.7 million 423 1 per 27,660
3. Tokyo 13.1 million 385 1 per 34,000
4. London 7.8 million 349 1 per 22,350
5. New York City 8.2 million 277 1 per 29,600
Cities not mentioned in the report
Austin 843,00021 25022 1 per 4,125
Nashville 627,00023 10024 1 per 6,270

342 Andrea Jean Baker
Music Scenes and a Sense of Place
Connell and Gibson said that the “link between music, tradition
[and] ‘spatial identity’ is important in ‘fixing authenticity’ in the invention
of music scenes” (18). This is evident in the participants’ responses.
Participants agreed that Nashville and Austin reflected the four pronged
analytical matrix related to musical heritage, originality, innovation, and
branding, which pinpoints the cities as influential “music scene economies.”
They note that Nashville and Austin as affordable, walk-able towns with
a village type feel. The cities are natural environments for “authentic”
and “innovative” local “music scenes” thrive. Participants describe how
Nashville and Austin were associated with a cultural history of practices that
encapsulate a “sense of place” and “love of place” (known as “topophilia,”
cited in Busch 401). In these cities, the local music community have also
rallied against unchecked gentrification to protect their industry.
Nashville, the Music City
The American Federation of Musicians began its life in Nashville
in 1902, and is now the third-largest music group in the United States
(Harper, Cotton and Benefield 6). By “1970 Nashville was a major centre
for country music,” said Don Pitt, the current Music Strategic officer at the
City of Austin, who had previously worked in Nashville for Gibson Guitars
for over eleven years.10 In 2004, country music accounted for less than
twenty five percent of the city’s scene and Nashville began competing with
music giants such as NYC and LA as to who housed a greater number of
musicians (Rothfield et al. 32). Location has something to do with it, as a
“non-coastal town,” Nashville is the “flyover” (Littman 3) or drive through
country between “ten main [music] markets in the US” (Schinder 42).
Today, Nashville is home of the world’s best music studio talent,
eclipsing NYC or LA. Nashville is the place for music writing and recording
in the United States, and even the world (Rothfield et al. 9). As Margaret
Littman said, Nashville is “the co-writing capital of the world” and its sheet
music outperforms NYC’s famed Tin Pan Alley (4).11 In terms of music
industry employment, in 2013 the US bureau of Labour Statistics said that
Nashville outnumbers NYC and LA (Littman 2). Nashville topped Florida’s
geography of America’s music index (over NYC and LA) because, as Pitts
notes, its’ “music industry is astounding.” “The Nashville effect,” Florida
calls it, because this small city now rivals the superstar music cities in the
music heritage and business scene (192).

Music Scenes and Self Branding 343
Nashville is home to more than 200 recording studios, which are
mainly located along the historic “Music Row” (Pitts). Today, most of the
major record labels, such as Sony BMG, Radio Corporation of America
(RCA), Warner Brothers, Capitol and Columbia, have offices along Music
Row. Pitts says that the term “[Music Row] is a superlative nickname
for the country music industry as a whole.” In the late 1950s, the Music
Outlaws embodied by the actions of rockabilly superstars, such as Johnny
Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Chet Atkins, initiated the use of independent
bands and production techniques along Music Row and helped to invent the
Nashville sound (Willouhby). The RCA’s famed Studio B where rockabilly
king Elvis Presley recorded most of his greatest hits during the 1950s and
1960s was also situated along Music Row. In February 2015, a study of music
clusters recommended that Nashville seek a UNESCO World Heritage Site
designation for Music Row; at time of writing this paper, that process was
still in progress. Nashville’s (Country) Hall of Fame, established in 1961 is
one of the world’s largest museums which boasts more than thirteen million
visitors (music tourists) per year and generates over US$5 billion in revenue
(Terrill et al. 38).12
With more than 130 music publishers, Nashville is the largest
publishing center in the Southeast of the United States and one of the
top ten largest in the country (Pitts). Its culture of music publishing and
its burgeoning radio, television, and film industry has enticed some of
US’s top producers, directors, and production houses to set up shop in the
city. Coupled with a major music business component, the media industry
supports, promotes and nurtures Nashville’s music production. Beginning
in 1925 the Grand Ole Opry radio program is the world’s oldest running
live music radio broadcast and showcases the work of local musicians.13 In
2012, the musical drama television series, Nashville chronicling the lives of
fictitious country music singers received critical acclaim, reinforced with
the city’s “quippy moniker Nowville” and its music brand (Littman 2). Now
in its fourth season, the series was created by a former Nashville resident
Hollywood Director Callie Khouri, who also won an US Academy Award for
the 1991 feature film Thelma & Louise (Rhodes).14 In 2014 Rolling Stone
magazine, the “arbiter of all things musical” opened a bureau in Nashville,
signifying to the world that this relatively small city has a thriving scene
where music writers need to be based (Littman 2).
Florida argued that Nashville is the “Silicon Valley of the music
business” because it combines “accessibility, professionalism, great music
infrastructure, and great talent.” (6). In 2013, the Nashville music industry

344 Andrea Jean Baker
sustained more than 56,000 jobs, which (as noted) contributed US$5.5 billon
(Harper et al. 18). Because of its vibrant cultural economy, Nashville was
the first city in the United States to brand itself a “Music City,” a term
which has now penetrated the “cultural” and “political vernacular in many
cities around the world” (Terrill et al. 10). Arguably, Nashville has been
a music city for more than a century; nicknamed so by the UK’s Queen
Victoria in 1873. As myth has it, the Queen saw a performance by the Fisk
Jubilee singer, an African American Capella act from Nashville’s historical
black college called Fisk University. Queen Victoria remarked that the group
must come the “music city” in the United States and ‘the moniker stuck”
(Littman 3).
Despite its renowned music city label, Nashville’s technology scene,
which is critical for musicians to get global exposure in the cyber sphere,
is still a “dark horse” in comparison to Austin (Nash 1). However, in 2013
Nashville was selected from hundreds of US cities as one of the seven Google
for Entrepreneurs Tech Hubs. In 2014, the Country Music Association also
partnered with the Nashville Entrepreneur Center to offer the city’s first
music and digital media-focused tech start accelerator, aptly called “Project
Music” (Littman, 2). Nashville-based musicians also use other informal
ways to adapt and connect with the global industry. As Connell and Gibson
suggest, Nashville’s constructed regional sound is based on the recognition
that the city is home to some of the globe’s best studio musicians. This
fact serves as a cultural anchor for musicians searching for a city, such as
Nashville, to be based in.
Nashville is one of America’s fastest growing cities, ranked third after
Austin and San Jose for economic and urban development. Unlike Detroit
and New Orleans, Nashville has a strong cultural economy, which causes
musicians to migrate to (Littman 5). Nashville has a “thriving community
of independent singer song writers” and “iconoclastic alt-rock bands”
(Schinder 42). For example, in 2005, one of the most talented contemporary
and iconic rock musicians Jack White, founder of the legendary White
Stripes relocated his newest band and recording project, The Raconteurs
from the Motown home (and now embattled, rustbelt city of Detroit) to
Nashville to set up his Third Man Studios (Littman).15
White’s relocation to Nashville is reflective of the general shift of
population and economic activity to the Sunbelt cities in the United States.16
Nashville has the second lowest cost of living in all of the US states. The city
also has affordable housing programs for musicians, such as the Ryman Lofts

Music Scenes and Self Branding 345
project, which began in 2013. Ryman Lofts, the site of the former iconic
venue, the Grand Ole Opry for over 31 years, became a housing space of
60 apartments for musicians in downtown Nashville (Littman 2–3). With
its studio infrastructure, session musicians, high employment and support
for musicians, the “Music City moniker” are well deserved for Nashville
(Littman 4).
Austin, Live Music Capital of the World
Austin, the Live Music Capital of the World, is Florida’s quintessen-
tial “creative city” because it came first on his three Ts (technology,
talent, and tolerance) index for US cities. Michael Mordecai from Fable
Records based in Austin notes that, “The city has been a base for the
bands that were overlooked by NYC or LA” (Mordecai). John Wheat,
Archives translator, Centre for American History at the University of Texas
in Austin, describes how the city’s music heritage and originality gave rise
to the traditional country music of Jimme Rodgers’s yodels. During the
1960s Kenneth Threadgill’s venue of the same name provided an outlet for
younger musicians such as the “hippy, bohemian, Janis Joplin to experiment
with variations of jazz, country, rhythm and blues and rock,” Wheat notes
(Wheat). When the “progressive country singer songwriter Willie Nelson
moved from Nashville to Austin in the 1970s,” he “brought a social
awareness to the music scene,” he adds. Mordecai describes how Nelson’s
music gelled together various genres (country, rhythm, and blues) help to
align the once distinct music subcultures into a cohesive music community
(Mordecai).
The Austin music industry also has a supportive media that
helps profile the artists. For example, “Austin City Limits,” which began
broadcasting in 1974, is the longest running television music program in
the world.17 The weekly program originally focused on “Austin and Texas
musicians,” but then “expanded its focus to the world,” Wheat notes. “Next
to the new Austin City Limits building sits a statue of Willie Nelson on Willie
Nelson Boulevard,” Wheat highlights. As Nick O’Byrne, manager of Big
Sound, a global music conference held annually in Brisbane (Queensland,
Australia) notes, “the thing Austin does well, more than other cities, is
recognising its history” (O’Byrne).
Barnes, from the Austin American Statesmen, said that Austin was
a blip on the urban radar until 1987 when the SXSW Inc music conference
began, which is one of the most influential and largest global music events.

346 Andrea Jean Baker
In 2015, SXSW Inc had an economic value of more than US$317 million
(Preliasco). In the 1980s, SXSW Inc helped to position Austin within the
global music industry, Pitts from the Music office at the City of Austin
says. In the beginning SXSW Inc emerged as an incubator of the Austin
sound, which brought together “innovative mixes of honky-tonk, western
swing, blues and country rock,” Pitts says. As SXSW Inc grew and became
global, local musicians had a “home field advantage” to the “glocalisation”
of music (Connell and Gibson 14); while local festivals such as Austin
City Limits (and its weekly television program) offered musicians regular
exposure.
With the access of more than 250 live music venues (along the
historic sixth street, the red river and the South Austin area known as SoCo)
and the growing indie music label culture, Pitts notes that “musicians’ have
access to local venues and networks to master their craft.” In 1991, the
Austin City Council branded Austin as the Live Music Capital of the World,
on the basis that the city had more live venues per capita than any other
US city. Mordecai, who was on the music committee which initiated the
branding, said that “Austin needed a mantra. Nashville has the mantra of
music city, New Orleans had jazz, but what the city needed was a slogan”
(Mordecai). Mordecai abstained from the “of the world part,” because it is
not true. “Branson, a tiny town in Missouri, per capita have more musicians
in their city than we do,” he added. “Of the world part,” is “a hyperbole.
It is wishful thinking,” says Wheat, the researcher from the University of
Texas. “Austin is still a major centre of live music and creativity,” he added.
As Pitts notes, “It has worked out very well for us, but it is a slippery slope.
When I moved to Austin from Nashville, if anyone questioned the moniker
of Live Music Capital of the World, the dukes would go up. Since 2011, the
revised response is because we are because we say we are” (Pitts). As Nikki
Rowling, author of the 2015 Austin music census notes, branding a music
city plays “a critical role in attracting tourists, new residents and musicians”;
it is a “successful marketing tool” she says (Bendix 2).
A report in 2015 from the US-based Forbes magazine said Austin
was “the number one city for tech growth, narrowly beating out Raleigh,
North Carolina” (Soddon 1). According to the study, Austin’s tech scene
has grown by more than seventy-four percent in recent years, which is more
than any city in the United States. During the 1990s technology companies
such as Apple Inc. Dell and Motorola moved to Austin. By 2015 Apple Inc
had the highest concentration of employees outside Silicon Valley in San

Music Scenes and Self Branding 347
Francisco (Hawkins and Noval 3). Austin became known as “Silicon Hills”
because it rivalled “Silicon Valley in San Francisco” (Timberg 19).
Because of the technology culture, Austin became a highly affluent
and consumption orientated city. However, the technology culture also led
to disparity between a high tech, white collar workforce and a higher than
average poverty, especially amongst African Americans (Long). In 2015
technology analyst Patrick Moorhead told journalists from the American
Statesman, that Apple Inc picked Austin was because it had a “very educated
workforce” with a “deep pool of high tech talent” (2). Austin’s burgeoning
local technology scene created a context for productive virtual music making
and offered global cyber exposure to locally-based musicians. As Monahan
notes, the biggest attendance for the SXSW Inc conferences is now its
interactive stream component, which has an annual attendance of over 30,000
delegates. “The internet is now the gate keeper of the music industry,”
Monahan adds.
In the 2015 Austin Music Census, Rowling notes “that the technology
industry’s supersonic growth is a key context for what is happening in Austin
with music as well” (cited in Bendix 4). Austin is now the fastest growing
city out of the largest 25 cities in the United States (Cohen). In 2015, the
Live Music Capital of the World “moniker is still used to promote the entire
cultural output” of Austin in both its local and nighttimes economies (Busch
401). As Monahan, formerly of the Texan Music Office declared, “This is
music town. People love music!” As Pitts says in the Mastering a Music
City report, “Live music is available for consumption at any time, any day
of the week. From the airport, to grocery stores, to City Council meetings,
music is embraced in Austin on an unparalleled level” (Terrill et al. 18). The
Mastering a Music City also highlights that Austin has “no representation
from major music labels.” As Mordecai from Fable Records notes, “Austin
is a mainly a cottage industry because the record labels are based as
home.”
Florida said that Austin deserves its stripes in his talent creative
cities index because it is a college town. Besides its renowned, vibrant
music scene, Austin is also home to the University of Texas (UT) which
has a global tertiary ranking at number 25 (Pitts). Urban economists such
as Edward Glaeser and Joshua Gottlieb contend that education increases a
person’s tendency to attend pop, rock, or classical concerts (25). Jennifer
Houlihan from Austin Music People, a community advocacy group, agrees,
highlighting that “Austin as a college town has a constant supply of youths
who are more likely to go out and enjoy music” (Houlihan).18 The (now)

348 Andrea Jean Baker
global SXSW Inc. was started by former UT students, music journalist,
Louis Meyers and businessman, Rowland Swenson, who also started the
weekly street press, The Austin Chronicle in 1981. The Austin Chronicle is
the voice and the critic of the local music industry. In 2015, it had a healthy
weekly circulation of 445,000, and is said to rival the famed street press
The Village Voice in NYC (Austin Chronicle).19 Other key music industry
spokespersons based in Austin who interviewed for this study, also attended
UT.20
Being a state capital, Austin is home to the Texan parliament, but
as Pitts from the city’s music department notes, “Austin has an interesting
mix of college students, a vibrant music culture and politics; and the law
enforcement authorities are quite tolerant.” Pitts says that “Austin has
the mindset in the hippy 1960s, but it is one of the most progressive,
forward thinking, opened minded and social justice focused cities in the
US.” Monahan agreed with Pitts, and sums up “the three things that kicked
Austin’s live music scene; a constant resupply of young people largely from
UT, Willie Nelson moving back here in 1971, and Austin City Limits.” And
“With Austin you had this little ray of light hit it and the music industry
continues to grow. Now we have more spotlight than we do in NYC or LA,”
Mordecai adds.
Conclusion
While the music economies of Nashville and Austin are massive
drivers of the ebb and flow of their cultural scenes, this paper offers a
holistic social–cultural, qualitative approach to mechanisms that sustain
those scenes. Analysis of these cities’ vibrant scenes is based on four-
pronged, analytic matrix strength of musical heritage, originality, innovation,
and branding. Unlike the superstar music cities of NYC, LA and London,
Nashville and Austin are globally renowned for “claiming and promoting
music as their local culture” and “harnessing and mobilising it as a local
source” (Cohen 5). However, there are weaknesses that could affect their long
term sustainability as influential music scenes. Nashville is yet to expand
its technology scene, while Austin has no major record labels based in the
city. In a time when the dynamic tensions in musical production across the
globe, is shaped by the push and pull of the online music mobility or music
clusters, small cities such as Nashville and Austin, are the alternative new
normal, in their “quest for local identity” and “reimagining the music brand”
(Cohen 36).

Music Scenes and Self Branding 349
Notes
1.In this paper, a report is written by the industry, while a study is written
by the academy.
2.The UNESCO Creative Cities Network was set up in 2004 and is currently
formed by sixty-nine Members from thirty-two countries covering seven creative
fields, such as Crafts & Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Music and
Media Arts. Web. 1 May, 2014 <http://en.unesco.org/creative-cities/home>.
3.Tamworth (New South Wales, Australia) in June 2013; Kamakura (Japan)
in September 2014; Mendoza (Argentina)in March 2009;Magdeburg (Germany) in
2003, Caen (France) in 1991; Edmonton (Canada) in 1990 and Taiyuan, China in
the 1980s. 1 May, 2014 <http://www.scnashville.org/sister_cities.html>.
4.Global Music Cites panel, at SXSW Inc. Web. 15 March, 2014.
<http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_MP23484>.
5.Martin Elbourne (2013: 9) is also the creative director and cofounder of
the Great Escape, annual music festival in Brighton (UK).
6.The Austin American-Statesman is the major daily newspaper for
Austin, which was founded in 1871. Web. 1 May, 2014<https://www.tshaonline.
org/handbook/online/articles/eea11>.
7.In February 2015, Casey Monahan’s twenty-five year run as the first
Director of the Texas Music Office ended after the new Texan Governor Greg
Abbott decided to replace him (Reilly, 2015).
8.North by Northeast (or NXNE), which began in 1995, is an annual music
and arts festival held each June in Toronto and is a sister to Austin’s SXSW, Web.
1 May, 2014. <http://nxne.com/>.
9.In 2013, the second World Cities Cultural Report included twenty one
cities, such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Istanbul,
Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Montreal, Mumbai, New York, Paris, Rio
de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto
(Johnson, 2013: 4).
10.Gibson Brands, Inc. is an American manufacturer of guitars and other
instruments, now based in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded by Orville Gibson
in 1902 in Kalamazoo, Michigan; and was originally called The Gibson Mandolin-
Guitar Mfg. Co., Ltd (Ingram, 2007).
11.Tin Pan Alley was the nickname given to a street (West 28th Street
between Broadway and Sixth Avenue) in Manhattan, New York City where many

350 Andrea Jean Baker
music publishers worked during the period of 1880 to 1953. Web. 1 June 2015.
<http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/eras/C1002>.
12.Established in 1961, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
preserves the evolving history and traditions of country musicered the world’s
largest music museum. Web. 1 May, 2014. <http://countrymusichalloffame.org/>.
13.The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country-music stage concert in
Nashville, which was founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a
one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Web.1 May, 2014. <http://www.opry.com/
history>.
14.Thelma & Louise was an Academy award winning Hollywood
film directed by Ridley Scott and released in 1991. Web. 10 January 2016.
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103074/>.
15.Detroit was also home to the Motown and techno sound and influential
rock bands such as The MC5 and Iggy Pop and The Stooges (Florida, 2008: 4).
16.White produced and performed in Nashville on country-legend, Loretta
Lynn’s highly regarded Va n L e a r R o s e album (Florida, 2008:4).
17.Austin City Limits (ACL) is a music performance television show on
the US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and KLRU TV, in Austin. Web.10 May,
2014 <http://acltv.com/history-of-acl/>. The associated Austin City Limits Music
Festival which began in 2002 now runs over two weekends in September and
October annually. Web. 10 May, 2014 <http://www.aclfestival.com/>.
18.Austin Music People, a local music advocacy group was started in 2010
when a residential development went up in one of the city’s busiest live music
corridors (Baker, 2013e).
19.The Village Voice was the brainchild of Dan Wolf and Edwin Fancher,
who began the street press in 1955 because the two lamented the lack of reporting
on the culture of West and East Village in NYC (Sheryl, 2013).
20.Such as Casey Monahan (Texas Music Office), Michael Mordecai
(Fable Records), John Wheat, (music historian).
21.Austin Population, 2015. Web.1 May, 2015. <http://worldpopulation-
review.com/us-cities/austin-population/>
22.Baker (2014c).
23.Nashville Population, 2015. Web.1 May, 2015. <http://worldpopula-
tionreview.com/us-cities/nashville-population/>.
24.Florida (2015).

Music Scenes and Self Branding 351
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