The Nashville Sounds Minor League Baseball team was established in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1978, after Larry Schmittou and a group of investors purchased the rights to operate an expansion franchise of the Double-A Southern League. The Sounds played their home games at Herschel Greer Stadium from its opening in 1978 until the end of the 2014 season. In 2015, the Sounds left Greer for First Tennessee Park, now known as First Horizon Park, a new facility located on the site of the historic Sulphur Dell ballpark, home to Nashville's minor league teams from 1885 to 1963.
The Sounds led all of Minor League Baseball in attendance in their inaugural season and continued to draw the Southern League's largest crowds in each of their seven years as members of the league. On the field, the team won six consecutive second-half division titles from 1979 to 1984 and won the Southern League championship twice: in 1979 as the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds and again in 1982 as the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees.
In an effort to position Nashville to contend for a Major League Baseball franchise in the future, Schmittou and team owners purchased the Triple-A Evansville Triplets of the American Association and relocated the team to Nashville before the 1985 season. The Triple-A Sounds carried on the history of the Double-A team that preceded them. They rarely contended for the American Association championship, making only three appearances in the postseason during their 13 years in the league.
The Sounds became members of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in 1998 following the dissolution of the American Association after the end of the previous season. In 23 years in the league, the team qualified for the playoffs on five occasions. They won their lone Pacific Coast League championship in 2005 as the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. In conjunction with Major League Baseball's reorganization of Minor League Baseball in 2021, Nashville was placed in the Triple-A East, which became the International League in 2022.