- Bernd Debusmann Jr.
- BBC News
2 hours
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Subtitle,
This music draws on a deep tradition dating back to the Mexican Revolution, but with language and action whose spirit is drawn directly from today’s headlines.
Set to the sounds of accordions and trumpets, the ballad “En preparación”, sung by California (USA) native Gerardo Ortiz, could be mistaken for an upbeat polka. But his lyrics are terrifying and brutal.
“If you’re not good enough to kill,” screams Ortiz, “you’re good enough to be killed.”
The song goes on to describe a battle-ready gunslinger with a penchant for pickup trucks and his AK-47, who goes by a “respected” codename: M1.
The man you are referring to is not a fictional character. “M1” was the codename of a notorious Sinaloa cartel drug dealer, Manuel Torres Félix, aka “el Loco,” who was killed in a 2012 shootout with Mexican soldiers.
M1 may be dead, though his shameand that of other gang members, past and present, still lives in the narcocorridosthat can be heard everywhere, from small town festivals to nightclubs across Mexico.
Old style with today’s headlines
This music draws on a deep tradition dating back to the Mexican Revolution, but with language and action whose spirit is drawn directly from today’s headlines.
It is therefore not surprising that amid the grim reality this is the case behind the long and for the time being lost fight against the violence of the cTosignpostthis music genre divides the opinions of listeners in Mexico as well as new audiences north of the border.
Although the style of narcorridos dates back at least to the turn of the century, the genre first became popular in the United States in the 1980s, where it has often been compared to the gangster rap tradition.
He had his first impulse in the United States was above all thanks to Chalino Sánchez, a Mexican migrant still popularly known as the “King of the Narcocorridos”.
in many ways Heto the life of Sanchez fIt was as intense as the themes of his music.
In 1992, he narrowly escaped death after being shot twice in a shootout during a concert in California. Four months later they kidnapped him and finally They killed him a few hours later received a threatening letter on stage at a concert in Mexico.
In the decades since his death, the genre he popularized has remained a draw for many Mexicans and Mexicans living in the United States, where he has a loyal following.
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Subtitle,
Many narcocorridos have focused on the Sinaloa Cartel and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
“I like music to tell real stories from real people,” says Alex Fernández, a first-generation American living in Southern California, just a few miles from the Mexico border. “People like crime movies or gangster rap. It’s the same thing.”
Reliable numbers of narcocorrido listeners in the United States are hard to come by, but potential audiences number in the millions. According to Nielsen, Mexican “regional music,” the broad genre that corridos fall under, is the top-performing format among Hispanic radio consumers.
The audience among listeners on online platforms is potentially even larger. Spotify points out that the volume of reproductions of the genre has more than doubled since 2019 to 5,600 million, on 21% of which comes from UNITED STATES.
Fernández explains that among the songs currently on his Corrido playlist is “30 Armored,” a song about a convoy of trucks working for Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
Another song, “I’m the mouse”, is sung from the perspective of Ovidio Guzmán López, Jr. from Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, whose arrest in January led to a series of violent shootings and dozens of deaths.
“I know no fear,” says the song. “A Guzmán is not intimidated, especially by the government.”
Content in this genre is often inspired and created by real people and events his radio show or some live performances have recently been banned in some parts of Mexico and in events considered potentially related to drug trafficking.
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Subtitle,
Because of their harsh and gory lyrics, narcocorridos have been banned from some radio stations and events in Mexico.
In November, the organizers have one week-long cattle festival in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, steeped in violence They announced corridors were banned because they encourage bloodshed.
But for many American listeners, part of the appeal is the content of the music, which often portrays drug dealers as anti-government Robin Hood-like figures.
Its popularity in the United States is directly comparable to the rise of gangster rap in the mid-1990s. the 80s, According to Rafael Acosta, a professor at the University of Kansas who has studied the genre of narcocorridos.
“Gangster rap has settled into mainstream culture and isn’t that different in function or style,” he says.
The narcocorridos tell the stories of “people who, often with good reason, feel neglected by the state and economic apparatus and who are looking for opportunities for rebellion and socio-economic advancement,” says Professor Acosta.
And he compares them to movies and songs about early 20th-century Italian gangsters or outlaws smuggling moonshiners in the Prohibition-era 1920s.
A reaction?
However, critics who denounce the genre point to its relationship to violent incidents in real life and the perceived relationship between musicians and criminals.
More than a dozen narcocorrido singers have been killed in Mexico in recent years, while others have been accused by authorities of involvement in crimes.
The violence of music is a “complicated” subject even for fans, annotation Professor Akosta.
Some even show signs of the exhaustion produced by drug-related violence in Mexico. And the turned some fans away from the music.
Howard Campbell, a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, researches the drug trade and culture on the US-Mexico border and found this out The popularity of music in the region has declined.
This trend is partly due to the fact that many in El Paso They are fed up with the images of a drug war that has claimed thousands of lives across the borderhe is arguing.
“How many times can you show the same videos of drug dealers, people drinking champagne with women and guns? At a certain point it gets stale and starts losing their chic and cool aspects. The reality is that it’s a terrible situation.”
“It’s something that will never go away entirely,” he continues. “But I don’t think it will regain the importance it once had.”
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