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Heart and Soul: The Buckle on the Bible Belt: The Buckle on the Bible Belt

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Alan Jackson - Musician

01/11/2014 GMT

The Buckle on the Bible Belt

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, The Buckle on the Bible Belt, The Buckle on the Bible Belt

How Christianity became big business in Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee is known as the home of country music. But its biggest industry, next to health care, is religious music.

Nashville Tennessee is the worldwide home of country music - a city famous for Hank Williams and Dolly Parton, the Grand Ole Opry and the annual Country Music Association Awards. Yet behind the showbiz veneer of guitars, rhinestones and cowboy hats, Nashville is America’s ‘Protestant Vatican’. Singer, journalist and southern gentleman Sid Griffin goes in search of the real heartbeat of ‘Music City’ – religion. 

Evangelical Christianity is a strong cultural force in the American South. With over 700 churches, a vibrant Christian music scene and as the religious publishing capital of America, Nashville is often called ‘The Buckle on the Bible Belt’. Sid Griffin visits the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to trace the history of Christianity in country music. From early folk songs to origins of ‘Music City’ in the 1800s, when Nashville’s publishing houses hired travelling gospel bands to write and perform music at churches – all in a bid to sell hymnals.  

In a city where Christianity and big business are infused, Sid Griffin hears from Dolly Parton who says God is her 'producer', Garth Brooks on his ‘God given talent’ and Beth Nielsen Chapman, along with industry insiders like talent agent John Ferriter and former Elvis Presley pianist and legendary producer Tony Brown, as they discuss the influence of Christianity, both musically and morally and financially, on the Nashville music industry.  

Today Contemporary Christian Music or CCM is the fastest growing genre emerging from Nashville. CCM stars Michael W. Smith, Jaci Velasquez and Gary Chapman explore how Christian music became ‘cool’ again. As CCM album sales continue to soar, Sid Griffin asks if the music still reflects a sincere desire to evangelise or is it simply business?

(Photo: Alan Jackson performs at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum 2014, Nashville, Tennessee. Credit:  Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

Heart and Soul: The Buckle on the Bible Belt

BBC World Service

Singer Sid Griffin explores how Christianity, and Christian music, became big business in Nashville, Tennessee. 

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