(CNN Spanish) – Surely you’ve heard or read about featherweight in the past few weeks. There’s no denying that Mexican music, a genre that now includes recumbent corridos, is occupying important places in the reproduction lists of various platforms.
For example, on Spotify for the week of June 8, 2023, Featherweight appears on three of the top five most streamed songs worldwide.
La Doble P also has two videos in the top 5 trending video clips on YouTube in the US.
The Mexican’s songs, as well as the Grupo Frontera and Bad Bunny collaboration, are reproduced over and over again on these two platforms and their audios go viral on social networks of the likes of TikTok.
Mexican Music and Generation Z
What happened that these artists dominate musically worldwide? It’s all generational, says AJ Ramos, manager of Latino artist relations for the United States and Latin America at YouTube.
“This new generation, the Z generation, especially the one with the crossover [cultural] representing the 200% – 100% American, 100% Mexican – are dissolving. It’s getting noticed on the charts more than ever. “In the United States, the largest diaspora of our Latino community is Mexican, and it’s nice to see what’s happening,” Ramos told CNN en Español.
Artists like DannyLux, Conexión Divina, Becky G, Fuerza Regida, Grupo Frontera and others are American but with Mexican roots and are a clear example of the phenomenon Ramos is describing.
Although Becky G got her start in urban pop, at Coachella the singer invited various artists representing Mexican music onto the stage. She is also close to releasing a regional Mexican album.
The phenomenon is neither coincidence nor new, explains Ramos.
“Mexico has always been here. For an artist to become a global artist, they must stay in Mexico and the Mexican community must love them. Now, platforms like YouTube are emerging, offering the opportunity to connect music to new audiences and new communities, creating a global platform that continues to push music forward,” AJ Ramos told CNN en Español.
Hiphop culture for reference
Perhaps the reference to hip-hop in Mexican music seems exaggerated, but there is an aspect of this American cultural movement that artists like Natanael Cano and Peso Pluma are emulating.
Although they perform corridos and their music contains Mexican rhythms and lyrics, the style of these singers is very different from what, for example, traditional regional Mexican performers wear: cowboy hats and boots.
The performers who populate the world stage wear diamond necklaces and luxury branded clothing and shoes. And that’s an aesthetic akin to hip-hop culture.
“They are authentic, they are. If they wear a hat, that’s fine, but they’ve got their Gucci, they’ve got their Supreme. They put on their beanies, they put on their Yeezys, and they put on their Jordans. But the richness of the word and the lyrics, in addition to the fusions and the musical elements they use, make a connection to this new generation, which even includes the reggaeton artists. [queriendo] “Make music in the Mexican world,” explains Ramos.
And not only reggaeton artists like Bad Bunny fall under the spell of Mexican music. Snoop Dogg is one of the American artists, icons of hip hop culture who also approached the Mexican world. In 2020 he surprised by collaborating with Banda MS and Natanael Cano. She has also posted videos of herself listening to Diva de la Banda, Jenni Rivera. This cultural rapprochement between hip hop and corridos seems to be paying off.
Félix García, vice president of marketing at Monitor Latino, a company that monitors radio stations in Latin America, agrees with Ramos’ theory that Featherweight’s fresh and slightly urban image has brought him closer to young people from other parts of the world.
“It brings a much more pop look and obviously some lyrics that are much more Gen Z-friendly,” says García.
Mexican Music in Latin America and the World
According to 2020 census data cited by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Mexicans are the largest immigrant group among Latinos in the United States. That’s why Mexican music has more space in the United States. In Latin America the situation is somewhat different.
Although the phenomenon Featherweight spearheads is relatively new (its explosive rise has been documented in the past three months), the rise of Mexican music in South America can be measured over the past five years, says García.
Although rancheras have always had regular audiences in places like Venezuela and Colombia, the latter country’s appetite for Mexican music has grown in recent years, he explains.
“About five years ago, Los Plebes del Rancho, Carín León and those types of artists in Colombia started to sound a lot, but it just didn’t go from there,” explains García.
Peso Pluma, García says, with its pop look, has managed to penetrate markets where previously regional Mexican artists could not at least appear at the top of the charts.
“It managed to invade other parts of Latin America, such as Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay and even Spain,” García explains.
The innovation of the Mexican region
But not everything is appearances, explains García. Like all genres, Mexican regional music has also gone through a process in which sound innovations were necessary.
“Vocally, a lot has been innovated, there’s even a track where you can hear rap. Traditionally, regional Mexican music was not sung or composed the way it is composed today,” explains García.
One of the forerunners of this entire movement, says García, was Natanael Cano, who is considered the father of the lying corridos.
“Natanael was the one who started this new wave, this new genre within the Mexican region,” says García.
Natanael Cano told Zona Pop CNN in 2022 that the birth of the corridos while lying down was inevitable.
“I think it came from within, it was inevitable. I had to spend the corridos lying down. We made it from the heart, we made it organic, we made it in the neighborhood. People were good at capturing it, maybe they were. “I forgot that essence because it was a long time ago,” Cano said.
For García, innovation within the genre will be key to ensuring it continues to hold spots on global radio stations and platforms.
“I think what ultimately happened to urban music for it to have a better future and be compatible, now that it’s compatible with the whole world, including being more compatible with Latino cultures, I think it will continue has to be innovative.” The music of this genre that resonates the most or that crosses the most borders will be the one with the most commercial lyrics,” adds García.