#1-Nashville

# 1 – Nashville

I saw quite a few things in Nashville that surprised me. It was rather ridiculous, actually. I had never really noticed the amount of crap in the shops down on Broadway. We passed some flag shops (chiefly rebel flags) and went into some other Nashville tourist shops. Many of the items present to represent the city of Nashville, the state of Tennessee, and the South in general were mainly in reference to country music, overalls, buckteeth, and whiskey. It makes me think of the random tourist who arrives in Nashville (from a hometown of, say, Akron, Ohio, Portland, Oregon, or upstate New York) wearing spurs, a cowboy hat, and a giant belt buckle inscribed with some symbol of Southern pride. If you think this is preposterous, well, haha, it is, but it honestly happens about every other week in town.

One of the main aspects of this class is to look at the image a city (whether by the Chamber of Commerce or elsewhere) presents of itself and sells to consumers (e.g, tourists). What we find in Nashville is what sells to tourists as opposed to what Nashville is in actuality. I remember running into a guy from rural Oregon who bought 3 bairs of snakeskin boots for about $600 and thought he was getting a steal. Emphatically, he was kicking his heels around, proud of his investment, with the overtones of Heineken pouring off his presence.

The reason I am seeing this now is that the space of the locals and the tourists are so clearly defined in Nashville, as with many major cities. There are places in Nashville that tourists simply do not go to, unless they have friends in town, like most of East Nashville, anything in Hillsboro Village other than Pancake Pantry, and Elliston Place (with the exception of Exit-In). With this difference of space, there is a lack of sharing and a lack of knowledge for both parties, creating rifts in the relationships between locals and tourists. Locals can see Nashvillians as either dumb rednecks or perhaps exotic musicians, where we can see tourists as ignorant and as a means to make money. Neither of these assessments of the other are adequate, in my opinion. This, however, seems to be one of the negative effects of mass tourism and commoditization of local culture. Where the locals often benefit financially, they are crippled in culture-sharing and mutual understanding.