9. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro (Tenn.)
Metro population: 1.4 million
Unemployment rate: 9.1 percent
Cost of living index: 90.5 (100 is average)
Among the 50 biggest metropolitan areas, Nashville ranks No. 2 for indie culture.
“You don’t think of Nashville as a cool, hip place, but its’ become one. It’s segwaying from country music to more mainstream music,” Sperling said, according to cnbc.com. “Because of all these great music studios available, and the fact that there is a whole lot of culture dealing with all aspects of music, allows young musicians to do things on the cheap.”
