Mexican Music

Escapees Chapter 8 Mexican Music

Mexican music has evolved over time, incorporating influences from many genres, including jazz, rock, pop, and hip-hop. The first genre of Mexican folk music was the Son, which combined European, Amerindian, and African musical traditions with short, poetic lyrics. Other genres that grew out of the Son include mariachi and corrido, which are characterized by ballads about Mexican experiences.

Mariachi music is a traditional Mexican folk music that combines brass and string instruments, and is accompanied by a distinctive singing style. It is considered a uniquely Mexican sound that combines indigenous and foreign elements. The mariachi orchestra originated in west-central Mexico in the late 1700s or early 1800s, and is now an institution symbolic of Mexican music and culture.

The now readily recognizable Mariachi Band “uniform” was first introduced by the wife of a Southern Pacific Railroad major stockholder who dressed the band in expensive Charro (wealthy Mexican horsemen) outfits for the opening of a railroad station in Mexico. The Mexican railway was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad at that time.

In the early 20th century, ranchera music originated in rural Mexico, characterized by sincere lyrics and emotionally resonant melodies. Banda and Norteño music emerged in the second half of the 20th century, with banda featuring brass and woodwind instruments like saxophones, clarinets, and trombones.

In the 1970s, grupera bands specialized in slow ballads and songs that had previously only been sung by mariachi. Contemporary Mexican artists seamlessly blend traditional components with contemporary sonic landscapes. Grupera music is characterized by electric guitars, keyboards, drums, and basses, and often includes ballads, cumbias, rancheras, corridos, boleros, and huapangos. The genre’s name comes from the fact that many bands’ names start with the word “Grupo” (group). Grupera music typically includes four or more musicians.

Since our RV club travels mostly in northern Mexico you may be familiar with Norteña music. According to Música en México, Norteña music could be considered the typical genre of the Northern region of Mexico, including the states of Baja California and B.C. Sur, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Sinaloa. Norteña music is a blend of different elements and styles with roots tracing back to Mexico’s 19th-century history, heavily influenced by German polka music.

Starting from the 1930s, the integration of rural and traditional music into the newly created ranchera genre was another definitive influence on Northern music. Nowadays, a new Mexican-influenced movement has begun migrating towards the United States, with Northern-style music being adopted as a symbol of the Chicano movement.

This unique style emerged from the fusion of three popular music types: traditional northern music, ranchera music, and American rock. The instrumentation of a typical northern group is very similar to what we find in the southwestern United States, primarily in Texas: accordion, bajo sexto (a twelve-string guitar-like instrument), guitar, and vocals. The lyrics often revolve around themes of love, heartbreak, and regional pride.

Mexican music is complex and constantly adapting to influences, and genres tend to be flexible and fluid, adapting and changing with every generation. Some prominent folk music genres include:

Son Music
Combines Amerindian, European, and African musical traditions with short, poetic sets of lyrics

Corridos
Defined by their dramatic ballads that have recorded Mexican experiences from the 19th century through today, especially songs that often told stories of revolutionary heroes of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920).

Ranchera
Also known as * canción ranchera*, is a traditional Mexican folk music genre that originated on ranches before the Mexican Revolution. It’s characterized by dramatic emotion, love-filled lyrics, and rhythms inspired by waltzes, polkas, and boleros. Ranchera music is also closely tied to Mexico’s national identity, and embodies the nostalgic spirit of family, country life, horses, and tragic love affairs.

In recent years, regional Mexican music has seen a substantial change in incorporating aspects of different genres like pop, rock, and hip-hop.