The US state of Tennessee is located within the Southeastern area of the United States. The state is the 17th biggest in population with 6,346,105 inhabitants. The total area of the state covers 42,169 square miles or 109,220 km2, that makes it the 36th-largest in total land area. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky and Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, and Missouri and Arkansas towards the west.
The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of Tennessee, and the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Tennessee's second largest and capital city is Nashville, which has a population of 626,144. The state's biggest city is Memphis, with a population of 670,902. Nashville has the state's largest metropolitan area, at 1,589,934 inhabitants.
Tennessee played a significant role in the development of early blues and rock and roll music. Considered to be the birthplace of the blues is Beale Street in Memphis, where musicians like W.C. Handy used to perform in the clubs. Memphis was also home to Sun Records, where musicians such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Charlie Rich and Roy Orbison began their recording careers, and where rock and roll took shape in the 1950s. The 1927 Victor recording sessions within Bristol generally mark the start 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 business.
Tennessee's major businesses consist of manufacturing, tourism and agriculture. Poultry, soybeans, and cattle are the state's primary agricultural products, and major manufacturing exports consist of chemicals, transportation equipment, and electrical equipment. The country's most visited national park, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is headquartered in the eastern part of the state, and a section of the Appalachian Trail roughly follows the Tennessee-North Carolina border. Various major tourist attractions comprise the Tennessee Aquarium within Chattanooga and Elvis Presley's Graceland within Memphis.
Textiles, cotton, cattle, and electrical power are some of the major exports for the state. There are over 82,000 farms within Tennessee, with over 59 percent of these farms supporting beef cattle. Though cotton was an early crop within the state of Tennessee, large-scale cultivation of the fiber did not begin 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 part that cotton took hold. Now West Tennessee is also heavily planted in soybeans, concentrating on the northwest corner of Tennessee.
Key businesses with head office within the state of Tennessee include AutoZone Incorporated, International paper and FedEx Corporation, which are all based in Memphis; regal Entertainment Group and Pilot Corporation, based within Knoxville; the North American head office of Nissan, based within franklin and Eastman Chemical Company, based in Kingsport.