• Council woman Joy Styles came to Nashville to pursue a career in country music.
• She proposed the entertainment commission to the mayor in 2022. It was passed in 2023.
• The group will focus on all forms of entertainment from film, TV and music to fashion, gaming and animation.

Nashville council member Joy Styles moved to Nashville in 2006 to do country music. Before relocating, she was also an actress in New York. She felt like Nashville would be full of creative opportunities.

Until she got here.

“I moved here to focus 100% on being a country recording artist, and during that time, I realized there as absolutely no connection between the city of Nashville and the creatives,” she told The Tennessean. “How is it that Music City is our moniker, and there’s no buy-in from the city? It was strange for me to come here and see there was an absolute disconnect.”

What she means by that is the city wasn’t offering incentives for productions to choose Nashville. There was no dedicated permitting office to make the process smooth like other cities have done. Atlanta, for example, Styles said, pulls in a million dollars a year in permitting alone.

Over the next few years, Styles began talking to music and film industry people in town and asking other cities how their film and entertainment offices were set up. Then she set out to create one here in Nashville.

“When I decided to run for office, this was one of the first things I knew I wanted to do,” she said.

The Nashville Music, Film and Entertainment Commission was proposed to the commission in May 2022, and it passed in April 2023. A board comprised of professionals from across the entertainment spectrum has been assembled and, in recent weeks, the group met for the first time.

City and state offices plan to work together

While Nashville’s entertainment commission is new, the state of Tennessee has had one for a long time.

Bob Rains is the executive director of the Tennessee Entertainment Commission and said the creation of a Nashville commission helps the state office further their goal of enhancing the services that a community can provide.

“We see this as a partnership much like how we work with Memphis,” Rains said. “We have an office in Knoxville we work with and now this newly formed one in Nashville. It’s great for us to have boots-on-the-ground people who are focused on their community and what they need. Memphis is different from Nashville. So this helps us become a more cohesive community in the entertainment industry.”

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Styles agreed, saying she is excited about the collaboration because she’s seen the state start to make more investment in productions.

“There are opportunities for us here, it’s just about being set up to do it effectively and efficiently,” she said. “We will be able to take advantage of state incentives and also figure out what we can offer as local incentives.”

Rains added that since Nashville houses 95% of the state’s music and production community, they should have a conduit to potential work for the city.

“If you are the biggest music hub in the state and one of the top music destinations in the country, you should have representation,” he added.

Shannon Sanders is a three-time Grammy-winning producer and writer. He’s also got multiple Emmy and Dove-Awards is the executive director for creative at BMI in Nashville and sits on the board of this new commission. He sees the mission as expanding what people think of when they think of Nashville’s music scene.

“I think this commission will bring an awareness to the city and help to dispel misconceived notions that Nashville is only country,” Sanders said. “We want to solidify our claim as music city. As we invite these other industries to come, it gives them a chance to see how complete of a music city we are. I argue per capita we are the most talented city on earth. We want to give our ecosystem of working musicians the opportunity to work more.”

Immediate goals for Nashville

While the Nashville commission is new and its board has only met once informally, Styles said initial goals include creating location scouting opportunities and a directory of services and talent in town. The group also needs to identify and hire a director.

“I went about creating the commission so it could be responsible for hiring an executive director and developing the mission and vision of that office,” Styles said. “Whoever it is can stay in that office as long as they want, not come and go with the mayor.”

Hazel Joyner-Smith, founder, president and CEO of the International Black Film Festival was appointed to the commission’s board by the mayor. She said she hopes to help the community become more cohesive to attract the larger industry to this area.

“One way to do that is to have a centralized place where people can receive information and services,” she said. “To be able to do that, you have to have a commission in place. Other cities our size already have a film, music and entertainment, television and gaming commissions. It’s time that Nashville joined that and offered additional services that probably only Nashville can offer because we already have an established reputation of being able to treat the entertainment community well.”

Styles said while the commission is just getting started, she’s excited about its future.

“We have a lot of hands on the plow now. Really strong hands. The only thing I can see from here is success. This is going to be a visible commission and office and that makes a difference.”

Melonee Hurt covers music and music business at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK — Tennessee. Reach Melonee at [email protected] or on X @HurtMelonee.