At 11 years old, young Taylor Swift dragged her parents 10 hours away from the family home to tour the record labels in Nashville. Obsessed with country music, she convinced her parents to move the family to the capital of Tennessee in 2003.
It was there that a producer noticed her in a cafe that has since become famous, the Blue Bird Cafe, and signed her to his label Big Machine Records. The story will last for the artist’s first six albums.
Michael McCall, associate director of the Country Music Museum in Nashville, explains the importance of local radio in the development of the musical style: at the beginning of the 1920s, one of the first major radio stations appeared in Nashville, notably thanks to its powerful equipment designed to broadcast emergency messages as far as possible.
WSM radio mainly broadcast country, and due to its location in Nashville, the industry around this style developed particularly in the city, particularly from the 1950s.
Nashville, city of country thanks to its radio
And due to its location in Nashville, the industry around this style developed particularly in the city, particularly from the 1950s.
Beyond the caricatures, cowboy hats and cowboy boots, the co-director of the Country Museum gives here the definition of this music born in the working environment of the South of the United States: from folk songs to music and simple words that tell the story of everyday life, joyful or not. He also emphasizes an important idea transmitted by the artists: “No matter how famous you are, you must not forget the fundamental values that make you a person like others, wealth or fame do not make you better. Remember where you come from and cherish those values.“
These same values will shape Taylor Swift throughout her years in Nashville.
How did young Taylor make a name for herself in Country music?
How did she go from high school to the stage of America’s oldest radio show? Answers in this episode 2 of the roadtrip of Xavier Yvon and his daughter in the footsteps of the artist, Taylor Swift is America!
Episode speakers:
Erika Wollam Nichols, general manager of Bluebird Cafe in Nashville
Amélie De Gaulle, honorary consul of France in Nashville
Michael McCall, Nashville Country Music Museum
In the credits of this episode:
Report and narration: Xavier Yvon and Sacha
Director: Anna Buy
Assisted by: Charles de Cillia
Mixing: Baptiste Collion
Translations: Maude Morrison
Coordination : Fanny Bohuon
With the French voices of: Anna Buy, Sacha Yvon, Xavier Yvon, Alexandre Pierrin, Anne Soetemondt, Alex Olaweraju Otinwa, Karen Dehais, Fanny Bouhon.
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