Beyond Bricks and Mortar: Music, Memory, and Preservation on Nashville's Music Row

Abstract

This thesis examines, analyzes, and discusses the subjects of history, sociocultural phenomena, and city planning as they pertain to the historic preservation of three iconic recording studios located in the Music Row neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee. In order to facilitate this, each building’s material and sociocultural histories are explored and presented in articulation of the author’s assertion that the wealth of each building’s worthiness for preservation is largely intangible, and seated within the public’s consciousness, where it resides in a significance that is comprised of musical and music-related historic events. In support of this assertion, this thesis also reports on the 2014-2015 preservation struggle for RCA Studio A, where the history of intangible wealth—in the form of country music—captured the imagination and emotions of the public, thereby swaying and uniting them in common purpose and perspective in an arc of controversy, activism, philanthropy, and city planning.