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Making Noise

How a Sunday night party changed Nashville

a four-part special podcast series from WPLN News and WNXP.

Thanks to our sponsors:

AT&T,
Citizens Bank,
ONE Community presented by the Tennessee Titans Foundation

Listen and follow ‘Making Noise’ on:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

The story

One musical narrative has towered above all others in Nashville: the rise and dominance of the country music industry. But that’s not the city’s only history, and Nashville’s troubled relationship with contemporary Black music scenes has gone largely untold — until “Making Noise.” 

This sound-rich, four-part series follows the work of Lovenoise, a locally founded and Black-owned concert promotion company that has been working for two decades to make room for hip-hop, soul and R&B in Nashville’s live music landscape.

Lovenoise founders

Listen

Part 1: The First Flyer

Sometimes, a concert can be so big that it makes the local news. Like in 2021, when legendary rapper Nas performed with the Nashville Symphony. So how did that watershed moment come to be? Behind the scenes — for some 20 years — the music promotion company Lovenoise was laying the groundwork, carving out “a safe space for Black culture,” and boosting artists of color.

Part 2: History Lessons

We zoom in on exactly how Lovenoise pushed through barriers that had long existed in Nashville and travel back in time to the heyday of Nashville’s Black music scene — and the role the city played in unraveling it. We meet the first generation of R&B players, hip-hop MCs and neo-soul singer-songwriters who found what they’d been looking for at Lovenoise Sunday nights.

Part 3: Leveling Up

By the early 2010s, Nashville was exploding as a destination for tourists and new residents. If Lovenoise wanted to make a difference in a city on the rise, they’d need to figure out how to tap into that growth — and try to make sure music-makers holding down the R&B and hip-hop scenes didn’t get left behind. Or pushed out.

Part 4 The Next Generation:

If one generation found Nashville inhospitable to their hip-hop and R&B ambitions, what about the next wave of artists? And what role could Lovenoise play for them? After 20 years of mounting influence for the company, the final chapter of “Making Noise” examines the work that is still to come.

The host

Music critic and journalist Jewly Hight has been based in Nashville for two decades. Often, she’s interpreted developments in Nashville’s music communities and industries for a national audience. Her work has appeared on NPR and in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine/Vulture, The Guardian, Billboard, The Oxford American, Slate and numerous other outlets, and she’s lent her expertise to a number of podcasts and documentaries. Hight landed her first book deal while studying religion, gender, sexuality, music and the South at Vanderbilt Divinity School, she was the inaugural winner of the Chet Flippo Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism and she helped launch WNXP as its Editorial Director in 2020. Now Senior Music Writer for Nashville Public Radio, and working with a diverse Nashville audience in mind, she’s created the organization’s first limited podcast series focused on music, “Making Noise.”

The team 

“Making Noise” is a joint production by WPLN and WNXP, the sister stations of Nashville Public Radio.

Senior Music Writer Jewly Hight reported the stories and hosts the show.

The editors and producers are Tony Gonzalez, Justin Barney, and Marquis Munson, with additional editing and guidance by LaTonya Turner, Meribah Knight, Nicole Kemp, Jason Moon Wilkins and Magnolia McKay. Fact-checking by Emily Siner.

The logo is by Mack Linebaugh, the accompanying live event on March 3 is directed by Nicole Kemp, and digital support comes from Rachel Iacovone and Carly Butler.

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