For almost a century ago, Mexican workers in America would tune into their radios at the break of day only to listen to Spanish folk songs. In a community immersed in various musical forms, corrido was the most popular. As explained in the Bedford reader in American history the corrido is, “a style of folk song characterized by storytelling about both heroic figures and everyday folks.” (148) This kind of music was so prominent in the Mexican community that doing something as simple as walking down the street you would encounter its melody. Every song has a story behind it, but for this style of music the story was all about the “loss and gain, personal love and political anger, national loyalty and cultural change; ethnic pride and racial …show more content…
The fact that using song lyrics as a historical source provides the listeners or readers of the lyrics real and pure thoughts from the writers. The songs are stripped of any malicious intent and simply, “created by people without wealth or power” as said in the aforementioned history book. (152) Another benefit is that the song evolves overtime and that also makes it diverse for any town to listen to. However, it expresses a new way of telling stories and assists in conveying emotion to the listener and truly involves them into the song. Also, I believe these song lyrics brings the Mexican community together whether they are rivals in the community or not it helps them forget about their differences. Besides the song lyrics ability to bring the Mexican community together it also gives them secrecy in a way only they understand their songs because although they are different in personality and looks they share similar worldviews. Although a blind spot may be that the song lyrics aren’t created for people outside of the Mexican community, but for historical sources there may be a major setback for today’s society outside of the Latino community to comprehend. As a result of this it may also be a disadvantage of having to translate it for a history class and with translations the actual message of the lyrics may be miscommunicated. Despite this, song lyrics do provide historians potential insight, but these lyrics can also be
For centuries, music has been defined by history, time, and place. To address this statement, Tom Zè, an influential songwriter during the Tropicália Movement, produced the revolutionary “Fabrication Defect” to challenge oppression as a result from the poor political and social conditions. On the other hand, David Ramsey discusses, in mixtape vignettes, the role of music to survive in New Orleans’ violent setting. Furthermore, “The Land where the Blues Began”, by Alan Lomax, is a film and perfect example to understand under what musical conditions profound ways of communication are made to stand the hard work of cotton plantations. As a result, music plays a crucial role in the sources’ cultures and its creation relies on particular conditions such as the social
Many of their fans have crossed the border illegally, or have relatives that have done so. The song goes into saying, “Mis hijos son grandes y no les entiendo-- no hablan español,” translating into “My children are grown but I do not understand them-- they do not speak Spanish,” (1:14). A study done by the Pew Research Center reveals that the number of Latinos in the United States that speak Spanish is slowly decreasing (Krogstad and Lopez), which shows that this is an all too real issue facing those among the Latino community. This particular occurrence is becoming too common for many families because as they push to fit into the American way of living, their roots may sometimes get lost in translation. It is one thing to not be able to properly communicate with your children, but it is another to not be able to talk to them because of a language
In his essay "Selena’s Good Buy: Texas Mexicans, History, and Selena Meet Transnational Capitalism,” Coronado (2001) argues that Selena embodies displaced desires that need to be situated in their historical content. By looking at how Texans and marketers reacted to Selena’s death, Coronado was able to show us how Selena’s death can be looked at form a psychoanalytic lens. The working class’ obsession with Selena can be seen as a fetish of sorts. A fetish is caused by trauma and can be applied socially to a irritable social construct. In other words, Selena could be a social fetish; the Latinx working class abruptly lost someone who was representing them in mainstream media, leading to the trauma. In this theory, Selena is no longer seen as a person who contributed hugely to the rise of colored people in mainstream media, but as
I grew up in a Mexican family listening to corridos, which are a type of song, since at every party, every celebration, and every occasion, that’s what the family would play. As I became more aware and conscious, I began to realize what these songs were actually saying. These corridos were telling a life story, ranging from life issues such as poverty, hard times, immigration, social and political problems, and/or life in general. A prominent and recurring theme that I saw developing throughout was immigration. Many of these songs, were expressing strong feelings that many Mexican immigrants, including my parents and other family members, were feeling regarding they’re citizenship status, how they were being discriminated against, and ultimately how they were feeling.
Chicanos study 50 made me want to discover more into what music helped motivate people in their everyday life or just brought their spirits up. Chicano Rock will always be a part of history and will continue to evolve even though some people will not have political views in their songs anymore. Mana is part of modern day rock in Spanish, but his songs are more about love. Music will continue to follow what society is asking for and since modern society is not as heavily opened to discrimination anymore rock and other genre will not focus in that. Just like Chicano movements’ leaders, Chicano Rock was there to push individuals to keep fighting for peace and acquire their rights. Chicano Rock was like Caesar Chavez and Rodolfo Gonzales; it brought hope to people when hearing their favorite artist speaking about incorrect politics and how it should be put to an end. Los Lobos, Zapatistas, and Los Curdos were small popular bands in the Chicano Rock that inspired Chicanos during the movements. Chicano Rock will probably will not be as big as other Latin genre and other modern genres, but like me and other people, there will always be followers who will continue to hear Chicano Rock and will be forever a part of history that will never be
Song lyrics have set off a great generation of our leisure time than reading poetic devices, therefore song lyrics are better than poetic devices. Song lyrics have dropped numerous lines that attach to us now a days and make us listen to the line over and over unlike poetic devices. Song Lyrics have so much meaning by word choice and by relations.”Mr. Rager” by Kid Cudi, is about people fed up with society and plan on taking a journey. “Dreams” by Edgar Allen Poe, is about a man who dreams of a greater life. Mr. Rager, the song by Scott Cudi, has a better meaning than Dreaming, the poem by Edgar Allen Poe, by personification, allusion, and symbolism.
This song from the time of Mexican Revolution puts into perspective to me about how things were back then and how the citizens realized why people wanted to be president.
Music is an art and a wonderful gift to human race. It soothes, stimulates and makes us feel happy. It affects our moods in many different ways from lullaby to war cry for changes in the society. Music is actually distinct to different people. Above all, it has a transformational importance that is captured in its art and nature. Music draws our emotions and it has an impact of bridging different cultures across the continents. Slave songs were very vital channels through which all kind of information was conveyed both positive and negative.
The struggle to find a place inside an un-welcoming America has forced the Latino to recreate one. The Latino feels out of place, torn from the womb inside of America's reality because she would rather use it than know it (Paz 226-227). In response, the Mexican women planted the seeds of home inside the corral*. These tended and potted plants became her burrow of solace and place of acceptance. In the comfort of the suns slices and underneath the orange scents, the women were free. Still the questions pounded in the rhythm of street side whispers. The outside stare thundered in pulses, you are different it said. Instead of listening she tried to instill within her children the pride of language, song, and culture. Her roots weave soul into the stubborn soil and strength grew with each blossom of the fig tree (Goldsmith).
As a lover of most types of rock music, I find myself listening to quite the array of songs from all sorts of artists. From recent hard rockers such as Seether and System of a Down, to more classical performers such as Styx or Aerosmith, they each created songs with many unique meanings to them, even with the more recent artists sticking to love. One soft rocker of the 1970’s, however found a meaning to write and perform a song concerning the events of the conquistadors’ arrival to the Americas, more specifically, Cortez and his invasion of the Aztec society. Neil Young, along with the group known as Crazy Horse, wrote and released a song in 1975 known as “Cortez the Killer,” and while it never even made the top 200’s in Billboards during that time, it can still enlighten us with the history that Young’s lyrics possess.
Border corridos and Badman ballads contain different styles, however, were shaped by similar social and cultural factors in history, such as interethnic conflict and discrimination. Border corridos and Badman ballads emerged from the oppression of a particular ethnic group and reflected the events that were occurring during those times. Although the Badman ballads and Border corridos portray relevant events to those times, there is no certainty the events happened in history.
In essence, the corrido genre is legendary for its hard-bitten lyrics of drug traffickers plus gunfights, and moreover functions as a genus of musical tabloid, singing of regime dishonesty, the lives of émigrés in the United States, in addition to the scuffles of the Zapatista insurgency in Chiapas. Although principally anonymous to English speakers, narco corridos top the leading Latin charts and govern radio playlists equally in the United States as well as points south. Examining diverse recent studies, the authors present in-depth examinations at the songwriters who have changed groups like the trendy Tigres del Norte into permanent celebrities, as well as the upcoming artists who are hauling the narco corrido into the 21st. In proving for the poetry as well as social demonstration at the back the ornate lyrics of in...
The reader could feel the pain and frustration from the words that Alarcon was using, such as, “hurts, burns, strikes, offends, and cries (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012, p. 543).” The use of “Mexican” at the beginning of the first two stanzas was very interesting, but Alarcon had a reason for doing
Minority groups have made huge contributions in a number of different areas such as the arts, music, dance, and theater that have shaped the United States’ culture. This paper will discuss the contributions that the Hispanic group have contributed to the U.S. culture in terms of music. The sounds of the Hispanics can be heard across almost every genre of music today with few exceptions. The Hispanics’ influence on American music can be traced as far back as the early 1900’s with the integration of Latin music into jazz. Some of the major types of music that Hispanics have introduced to American society would be Tango, Salsa, and Son.
Nearly in everyday life, songs are able to help deepen our understanding of various situations. For example, a movie might play a song to build suspense for its viewers. It might also be added to show deep emotions of the characters in the movie. With that said, songs are also able to show multiple meanings to stories and other literature. There are many songs that show a strong connection to a story.