On a Friday morning in late February, the team at Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and University Archives gave a handful of Scene staffers a tour through the institution’s collections, which are housed in a distinctive stone building formerly home to the Disciples of Christ Historical Society archives. The collections feature countless artifacts of both local and global import, from works by Middle Tennessee’s own comic book artist Eric Powell to a first-edition copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses and the death mask of 19th-century French poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire.
It shouldn’t surprise you that we — the team behind a real, decades-old, honest-to-God print publication — geeked the hell out. The archival tour also got us thinking about all the folks working not only to preserve special artifacts like these, but the members of our community who are still committed to making physical media. Here. Now. In 2026.Â
In this week’s issue, the Scene tours another very cool archival space, MTSU’s Center for Popular Music, and takes a look at the creative folks who are part of Nashville’s thriving zine scene. Our writers examine the resurgence of VHS taking place at spots like Danger Zone in Mt. Juliet, offer a lineup of Middle Tennessee’s best independent bookstores and talk to several local graphic designers about how AI is beginning to creep into their world. We also have an essay on how listening to vinyl brought a daughter closer to her father — even after his death.
Read on for more, and long live physical media! D. PATRICK RODGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The Mt. Juliet shop is a local hub for a growing community of VHS and DVD fans
Nashville zines embrace imperfection, highlight overlooked interests and scenes
Archivist Olivia Beaudry takes us on a tour of the collection — which features sheet music, cassettes, zines and thousands more items
Talking with silkscreen printers and a tattoo artist about maintaining customers despite the rise of generative AI art
From East Nashville to the West Side, North Nashville and the suburbs, indie bookstores are bubbling up all over Middle TennesseeÂ
Finding my way with vinyl after the death of my father
