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Stories that sold Nashville: How the nation heard about Music City

National media’s spotlight has yielded valuable cachet

Nashville’s explosive growth over the past quarter-century can be attributed to many factors – the boom of industries like health care and tech, the arrival of multiple professional sports franchises, the lack of a state income tax, downtown having completely transformed into a major tourist attraction, the growth of Music City as an entertainment hub beyond just country music – too many to name here.

But those are just the quantifiable, tangible reasons for the city’s rapid expansion. Thousands of people have moved here over the past 25 years, and it hasn’t solely been for financial reasons. One of Nashville’s most important transformations over this time period has been its cultural makeover, graduating from a sleepy, Southern afterthought to a major American city. For better, and for worse, Nashville became hip.

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