School trips to Nashville

Why visit Nashville?

Music City

Nashville has many nicknames, including ‘Music City’ and ‘Capital of Country Music’. In particular, the Music Row area has become an important centre for the USA’s music industry, with the Big Three record labels, as well as many independent labels, all having offices here.

While most famous for country music, Nashville is an important centre for many genres, include gospel and Contemporary Christian music and even Jazz.

While on a school trip to Nashville, one experience you can’t miss is a visit to the world-famous Grand Ole Opry. This weekly country music concert is also America’s longest-running radio broadcast and has been held in Nashville since 1925. The show usually features famous artists performing a mixture of country, bluegrass, Americana, folk and gospel music.

And your students can also enjoy a tour of the historic RCA Studio B, which became one of the cradles of the famous ‘Nashville Sound’ in the 1960s. Artists who recorded here include Chet Atkins, Eddy Arnold, the Everly Brothers and Elvis Presley.

Great base for exploring Tennessee

Nashville is also a great base from which to explore the rest of Tennessee, including Memphis.

Like Nashville, Memphis too has seen the birth of a number of music genres, including Memphis soul and Memphis blues. Many iconic artists from the 1950s and 1960s started their careers in the music industry in Memphis, including, of course, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Otis Redding.

Your students will love the city’s Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, where they’ll learn more about the history of the two genres and their pioneers, many of whom had to overcome racial and socio-economic barriers.

And, of course, you can’t visit Memphis without a visit to the famous Sun Studios, where Elvis Presley first recorded. One of the highlights of your visit to Sun Studios will be the opportunity to see the very microphone into which an 18-year old Elvis sang his first song to producer Sam Phillips.

You’ll also be able to visit the Gibson guitar factory, where your students will learn how these iconic instruments are built.