They’re Singing Nashville’s Praises--but Some See a Darker Flip Side : Demographics: Music and related industries have generated an economic boom. Along with it come some big-city problems.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. —  People and businesses are moving to Nashville in droves as the worldwide explosion in country music popularity turns this Tennessee city into a hotbed of opportunity.

Most Nashville residents are tickled pink and a lot richer due to the boom in country music.

Yet some of “Music City’s” newcomers, members of the music and record industries who have come here for work as well as an escape from the “rat races” of Los Angeles and New York, fear that Nashville’s Southern manners and traditions are on the verge of extinction.

“There’s a real hospitality there you don’t get in New York and L.A. and in some ways, there’s a lot more creative freedom,” said Bill Bernstein, a New York-based photographer who frequently visits Nashville to shoot album covers.

“But, it’s going to start to look like L.A. soon with freeways and traffic jams. It’s inevitable with all the money that’s going down there and all the buildings that are going up,” said Bernstein, who has toured with such well known acts as Paul McCartney and U2.

For instance, BMI, an organization that protects the rights of songwriters, is in the midst of transferring about 350 positions from New York to a new building in Nashville.

“Nashville is still genteel but the stakes are higher here and people are playing harder ball than they used to,” said Roger Sovine, vice president of BMI in Nashville.

“There’s so much money to be made in country music today that creative people are coming from L.A. and New York and they all want a part of the action,” he said.

Indeed, most of the major record companies have already built modern high-rise headquarters, recording studios and music business offices to replace old studios in cozy frame houses that formerly typified Nashville’s country industry and home-town ambience.

“All the labels used to be in converted homes and small buildings, but they’ve come in and spent tens of millions of dollars building office buildings, high-rises and state-of-the art studios,” said Butch Spyridon, executive vice president of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Garth Brooks kicked off the latest country music boom with hit songs and lively stage acts using high energy antics--smashing guitars and climbing walls--that lured young fans. His popularity landed him on the cover of Newsweek magazine.

Reba McEntire, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill and Billy Ray Cyrus followed with big hits and television appearances.

Spyridon said music and related entertainment industries generated an estimated $2 billion for the local economy in 1993. “The numbers have just skyrocketed since 1991, and 1994 looks to be just as good,” he said.

Spyridon said that, while the tempo shows few signs of abating in 1995, the growth might be leveling off--at a high level.

Country music has enjoyed popular booms before but not to the extent of the current explosion, which began in 1991 and saw sales of country records double from 1990.

Music industry sources attribute the growth to increases in radio stations playing country music and the popularity of The Nashville Network and Country Music Television cable networks.

Gaylord Entertainment Co., which owns Opryland USA, TNN and CMT, is now transmitting CMT to Europe and Asia.

And most Nashville veterans are unperturbed by the establishment of other country showplaces, such as Branson, Mo.

“First of all, Branson is drawing on an older audience. At the very least, it’s providing healthy competition for Nashville,” Sovine said.

Others said Nashville’s country music industry has grown as it has absorbed rock’s earlier styles and young audiences.

“I think what’s happening is that country music is becoming more mainstream and more accessible than it was,” Bernstein said.

“The well-defined boundaries of country music are being broken,” he said noting that country music now incorporates more bands such as the Eagles, which are a rock ‘n’ roll act with a country flavor.

Clay Smith, senior music segment producer for the television series “Entertainment Tonight” moved to Nashville from Los Angeles three years ago. He said it might soon be time for Nashville to return to its grass roots.

“I think a lot of people came here to capitalize on the country music boom, but I suspect it’s very tough to find a job right now, and you might see the boom ‘plateauing’ off for a while,” Smith said, adding:

“I think it’s going to be a time for new evaluation of country music, and we might see a return to roots after getting very commercial.”