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I'm kinda more interested in Appalachia than the "regular" South, so for me it's Knoxville
Personally I always think of the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area and anywhere in the Smokies, also the Tremont/Cades Cove area in Townsend. I'm also closer to Chattanooga so I'm likely to spend more time there than Nashville.
Lol Nashville is the Flavor of the Month, had this thread been made in 1980 or before ALL of You would be saying Memphis
Let's not forget Memphis was The Largest City of Tennessee for 100 years 1900 - 2017
1900 memphis surpassed nashville, 2017 nashville surpassed memphis
100 years of history cannot be erased or forgotten by flavor of A Month
Globally I still think Memphis may be more well known
Memphis's time has passed. Nashville is the most popular city.
Growing up in Atlanta, Chattanooga always meant Tennessee to me, as we would take day trips to SEE ROCK CITY, and visit Ruby Falls. Didn’t make it to Nashville or Memphis until I was in college.
I can see an argument for a lot of these. As a Memphian, it is obviously how I associate the state. I think American citizens at large see Nashville as the de facto rep (and it is the state capital). I think the older generation may be more mixed. Internationally though I'd def argue that Memphis is more known (in my experience in the Middle East and Europe many more people knew Memphis- purely due to Elvis, hah).
It's a tough call, but Nashville is more quintessentially Tennessee in character than Memphis. I grew up in Memphis but moved to New Orleans when I was 14. Whenever I would tell someone in New Orleans that I moved from Memphis, they would invariably talk about how much they loved the pretty mountains of Tennessee. Then I would have to point out that Memphis was nowhere near any mountains (and actually much closer to the Ozarks in Arkansas and Missouri). Nashville is not in the mountains, but it is hilly and fits in better with the stereotypes; whereas, Memphis is more like Mississippi and East Arkansas. Not that this really relates to which city is most associated with the state, since I think most Americans know Memphis is in Tennessee, but I feel like Nashville is better known as an icon of the state.
Memphis is the first thing that comes to mind, but I grew up in neighboring Arkansas in a time in which Memphis was the biggest city.
I also lived in a Nashville suburb for a while. Nothing against it in this particular conversation, just pointing out if you're from a different era, it might not be what comes to mind first.
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