The US state of Tennessee is located in the Southeastern region of the nation. Tennessee state is the 17th biggest in population with 6,346,105 people. The total area of the state covers 42,169 square miles or 109,220 km2, which makes it the 36th-biggest in total land area. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky and Virginia towards the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, and Missouri and Arkansas to the west.
The eastern part of Tennessee are dominated by the Appalachian Mountains, whilst the state's western border is formed by the Mississippi River. The second largest city and capital city of the state of Tennessee is Nashville. The city is home to 626,144 people. Memphis is the state's biggest city, with a population of 670,902. Nashville has the state's biggest metropolitan area, at 1,589,934 inhabitants.
The state of Tennessee played a major role in the development of rock and roll and early blues music. Considered to be the origin of the blues is Beale Street within Memphis, where musicians such as W.C. Handy used to perform in the clubs. Memphis was likewise home to Sun Records, where musicians such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Charlie Rich began their recording careers, and where rock and roll took shape in the 1950s. The 1927 Victor recording sessions within Bristol generally mark the beginning of the country music genre, and the rise of the Grand Ole Opry during the 1930s helped make Nashville the center of the country music recording industry.
Tennessee's major trades consist of agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. Poultry, soybeans, and cattle are the state's main agricultural products, and major manufacturing exports comprise chemicals, electrical equipment and transportation equipment. The nation's most visited national park, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is headquartered within the eastern part of the state, and a section of the Appalachian Trail roughly follows the Tennessee-North Carolina border. Several major tourist attractions include the Tennessee Aquarium within Chattanooga and Elvis Presley's Graceland within Memphis.
Main outputs for the state comprise textiles, cotton, electrical power and cattle. Tennessee has over 82,000 farms, around 59 percent of which accommodate beef cattle. Even if cotton was an early crop within the state of Tennessee, large-scale cultivation of the fiber did not start until the 1820s with the opening of the land between the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers. The upper wedge of the Mississippi Delta extends into southwestern Tennessee, and it was in this fertile section that cotton took hold. Now West Tennessee is also heavily planted in soybeans, concentrating on the northwest corner of Tennessee.
Key companies with head office in Tennessee include FedEx Corporation, AutoZone Incorporated and International Paper, that are all based within Memphis; Pilot Corporation and Regal Entertainment Group, based within Knoxville; Eastman Chemical Company, based within Kingsport, and the North American headquarters of Nissan, based within Franklin.