Two members of rock-n-roll royalty are getting married. A couple of weeks ago, news broke that White Stripes drummer Meg White and guitarist Jackson Smith (son of legendary MC5 founder the late Fred "Sonic" Smith and singer-songwriter Patti Smith) plan to tie the knot later this month. While both are born-and-bred products of Detroit's legendary music scene, their nuptials will take place 500 miles south in Nashville, Tennessee.
A few years ago, Meg's ex-husband and current bandmate Jack White made the move from Detroit to Nashville. Inspired by his time there producing Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose and the city's warm embrace of those who aim to "write hits," Jack White now lives there full-time with his family, and his new side project: The Dead Weather is based out of his new multi-purpose headquarters in the city.
The White's trips down I-75 are part of a broader trend. While
conventional wisdom holds that modern technology allows musicians to
work from anywhere they choose (while weakening the influence of
traditional record labels and rights-management organizations), the
reality is music, like many other industries, is actually becoming more concentrated and clustered over time. 
(Source: Martin Prosperity Institute, Music and Entertainment Economy Project)
In 1970, Nashville was a minor center focused on country music. By 2004, only New York and L.A. boasted more musicians. The extent of its growth was so significant that when my research team and I charted the geographic centers of the music industry from 1970 and 2004 using a metric called a location quotient, Nashville was the only city that registered positive growth. In effect, it sucked up all the growth in the music industry.
Richard Florida
Richard,
I have noticed that great new bands like Roman Candle have moved to Nashville, and it is interesting to see that this is a wider trend. Network (and in-person jam session) effects are still powerful. And the music scene is having even broader effects on Nashville, apparently. A friend who teaches at Vanderbilt Law got an offer from the much more prestigious Univ of Chicago Law School last year but declined, saying that Nashville was a much better place to live than Chicago. Your observations may help explain why. (I live in DC, so this is not a self-serving ad for Nashville.)
Link:
http://www.myspace.com/romancandle