The Changing South

In my recent traveling adventure, I went to the region in the United States known as the Changing South. This region extends from Eastern Texas to Virginia and covers many southern states. This region is known for its different variation of cultures so it is hard to tell what culture is in the south. In this region, I explore a couple places related to music which would be some of the cultures that can be seen in this region. It was really fun to check out.

My first stop in this region was the home of the one and only Elvis Presley. His home is named Graceland and everything related to it has something to do with him. Graceland is just outside of Memphis, Tennesse and here you can find a sense of culture that affected the south in the 1960's. Elvis was known as "The King" and became very popular with his blues music. Blues is what put the city of Memphis on the map and has continued to be a mainstay of culture since then. Blues music had been around before Elvis, but he helped put it on the map for everyone to see.

This is the front of Graceland.

This is the kitchen inside Graceland

When we got to go inside Graceland we were told that we could not touch anything. I was excited to see all of the cool rooms that Elvis had. You could tell that they were decorated by him because they were classy just like Elvis was. I was on a tour with a group and the people who were with me were drawn in and interested in checking out everything. I heard a lot of comments saying that everything was awesome and they hadn't seen a house this cool before. We also got to tour and learn about the blues. After the tour, we all felt that the blues was the best music around. The blues is definitely a culture that you can find in this part of the region.

After a few days, we went to Nashville to check out the Country Music Hall of Fame. There we learned a lot about the history of country music and how it has affected the culture of Nashville. Nashville like Memphis has developed a culture around music except for this type of music is country music. The Country Music Hall of Fame has artifacts that date back to the beginnings of country music. Some of these artifacts are from legends such as Johnny Cash and June Carter. If you go through the evolution of country music there you will see that as the music evolved the culture evolved with that. Even today the culture in Nashville continues to evolve along with the country music. In the hall, you could also see the plaques of all the members which I thought was very cool.

The Country Music Hall of Fame

Dolly Parton's Plaque

While visiting I saw a lot of kids looking at the different exhibits imagining that they were country singers. I even saw some older people looking at artifacts from country singers in the past. They were reminiscing about the good old days when they were in their prime and loved listening to country music. Country Music is also my favorite type of music so I really enjoyed checking out this exhibit. We even saw some people singing music out in front of the hall. In this city, there is definitely a passion for country music. 

Overall my visit to this region was music infested. Both of the places I talked about however represent cultures in the cities they are located in. The Changing South is known for its many different cultures and these are just a few of those. I will definitely come back sometime soon.