Mexico is known for many things that range from its beautiful beaches to its small unique towns to its food, but another aspect of Mexican culture that also stands out, is its many forms of music. When people think about music of Mexico, they typically think about mariachi or banda and the dances that are associated with the genres, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that there are other forms of music such as corridos and many types of sones. Since there are many genres in Mexican music, I will focus on corridos. Corridos have always been an important genre to Mexican music since they have always had an important message in them, although sometimes controversial and have also described the day-to-day lives of Mexicans.
Corridos have been around for a long period of time. Although, if you ask a person they probably couldn’t tell you how or where they started or what its roots are. Corridos also have changed over time and they have also become very political and controversial due to its ties to drug trafficking, cartel’s, and violence. It is said that corridos have been around for over 100 years. According to Sheehy, corridos formed and gained popularity around the times of the revolucion, “The revolution beginning in 1910, however, provided the intense popular interest that catapulted the corrido figures as Francisco Madero, Francisco Villa, Emiliano Zapata, and myriad others” (Olsen & Sheehy 198). Since, the corrido was developed during the Mexican Revolution one can only assume what the corridos was about. Given the circumstances in which the corrido was born, the corrido was probably about one of the leaders of the revolution. Although, the corrido is often related to revolutionary times, its historical roots are actua...
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...s my nerves when something stresses me out and even if I finish sierra, I’ll still continue to burn that good plant”. Like many of today’s English music, the consumption of drugs is the topic of many Spanish songs and it’s clear why many people such as parents wouldn’t allow their kids. It’s promoting drug use which isn’t good for humanity.
Corridos have been popular for a long time and even though they can often send bad messages in the songs, there are still plenty of songs that promote positive vibes and messages to the listeners that relate to the more important things in life such as family, love, and enjoying life itself. Corridos have come a long way for them to suddenly disappear and with plenty of artists contributing good music and with more on the rise, there isn’t a reason to be optimistic about corridos bringing the listeners together for happiness.
Another reason why narco corridos are an influence to society is their disrespect towards women, since the genre of music is about glorifying drugs and illegal money, artists tend to sing about luxuries cars parties and they also make women seem like an object that can be bought by their illegal activities. In narco corrido videos there is always more than one women half naked dancing around a man that thinks he deserves it all. It has always been around that women back then would do whatever their husband would tell them to do even if men would go around with other women, well narco corridos try to bring the message back of men having more than one women and just showing off the money they have living a criminal life. This attitude going on
Alfredo Corchado — is the author of the book named " Midnight in Mexico:A Reporter's Journey through a Country's Descent into Darkness”. We are, probably, all interested in finding out the facts, news, and gossips about Mexico. This country was always associated with something mysterious. For me personally, the title of the book seemed to be very gripping, I was interested in revealing the secrets of life in Mexico, thus I decided to read this book. I was really curious, what can Alfredo Corchado tell me about the life in this country, the country, where the constant massacre is the picture, people used to see. In his book, the author tells the reader about the real situations, which took place in Mexico, reveals the secrets of the people’s lives and tells the story from the “inside”. He describes the way he lives his life, and does his work. The " Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter's Journey through a Country's Descent into Darkness” is a memoir. Author tries to transform his own experience into the story line. Corchado shows the reader the darkest episodes of Mexican society, while relying on his own experience.
The importance of these, is that it would bring the attention of the audience. The band performed about 13 songs in total. It was a mixture of Banda songs and Corridos. The band’s songs talked about a lover and the longing of a loved one. The audience reacted in a good way. They were dancing of the floor section and they were cheering on the band, others were singing along with the singers meanwhile, others were recording them on their cell phones.
Released in 1997, Buena Vista Social Club immediately became an international success and won a Grammy Award in 1998. Around the world, especially in U.S. where the album was welcomed most heartily, Ry Cooder was considered the hero of Cuban music (Hernandez 65). Being the producer of the album, Cooder was assumed to discover a “lost treasure” in Cuban culture. However, Tanya Kateri Hernandez, in an article about Buena Vista Social Club, revealed that Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, not Cooder, was the person “who masterminded and facilitated the collaboration.” (Hernandez 62). Also in this article, it is noted that Juan de Marcos Gonzalez “implicitly acquiesced to Cooder’s propagation of the colonial myth for the purpose of ensuring the commercial success of the collaboration.” (Hernandez 64). Other musicians in the Buena Vista Social Club ensemble followed Gonzalez’s step, as there was hardly another choice for them.
The corrido has been identified as having distinctive characteristics that make up its theme and plot. First, the corrido has a “context of hostile relations between Anglos and Mexicans along the border and the establishment of a scenic structure, geographical locale, and opposing social forces” (Mendoza 146). The corrido’s hero “is a hard-working, peace-loving Mexican, who, when goaded by Anglos, outrages into violence, causing him to defend his rights and those of others of his community against the rinches, the Rangers” (Saldívar). This hero “is quickly introduced in legendary proportions and defiant stature” and many people must die before the hero reaches his triumphant, but tragic, demise (Mendoza 146). The Anglos in the corrido, meanwhile, are not one-dimensional villains but “complex figures who contain positive as well as negative qualities” (Mendoza 146). These distinctive traits of a corrido – setting, conflict, and characterization, among others – ...
For me it all started out with Selena. I remember a boy in my middle school class dedicating me "Como La Flor" at one of our school dances in seventh grade. After that Tejano just sort of stuck in my head and all I ever thought of the song was that I had rejected that boy. Selena was quite a Tejana star at the time, and I was shocked with her murder two years later. She was a five star role model for Mexican-Americans to relate to and appreciate. Her songs live on in the Tejano world, as does her sprit and love for the music.
"El Corrido Mexicano." El Corrido Mexicano La Cucaracha Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013
The Spanish words used in this song are: drogas, tiempo, yesca, jale, morena, and Vato. Drogas means drugs in English and tiempo means time in English. Yesca, means weed or marijuana in Spanish. Jale, is the conjugated form of the verb to pull in Spanish. When D.L. Downer says “Got to feed mi Jale…” (Suga Boom Boom) he is saying that he has to feed his addiction, he has to get more drugs. Morena, means dark-haired and/or dark-skinned woman in English. When Downer says “Fine little morena black on black even her eyes” (Suga Boom Boom) he is saying that she has dark hair, skin, and eyes. Vato, means dude or guy in English, but it has a negative connotation as a guy that you do not like or get along with. Downer refers to “chasing dragons,” a total of nine times, including once in the title. As described in the Urban Dictionary, chasing dragons refers to the high that you get the first few times you smoke opium, it makes the person happy, and makes all the troubles go away, but the rest of the time you are fiening for that high again but it gets harder and harder making you want to smoke more and more until you have nothing
Explanation- This article gives brief information about the singer’s music, her main type of music is traditional Mexican music infused with jazz soul, African root, and klezmer music. Lila’s music is so unique that there is no way...
Music comes in many shapes and forms, and has been a magical element of inspiration and encouragement throughout time. The art of music derives from many different things, such as culture and traditions. One such type of music is mariachi music, deriving from Mexican culture and traditions. Mariachi music is often an upbeat rhythm, consisting of a band of up to six to eight violins, two trumpets and a guitar. Unlike modern music and other music bands alike, mariachi bands lack in numbers when it comes to band size. Though they are small, their music brings great significance and life to the places they perform and the people that they touch with their joyous music. In this paper, I will be comparing the culture and style of mariachi music to twentieth century modern music.
The artist I decided to chose was Ramon Ayala’s interpretation of ‘Tragos Amargos’, which means bitter shots of liquor. The composer of, “Tragos Amargos” is composed by two writers Freddie Martinez and Jesse Salcedo. I decided to chose this song in particular because I have heard many of my family members drink to this song. As I heard this song, a flash of memories popped up from the lyrics of the song. For me, I have been surrounded by this song more compared to the other songs in the list, so I decided to go with track 23. The way Ramon Ayala sings the song, he makes the song sound depressing. His vocal formation is deeper, he stresses the note of the lyrics making the song sound remorseful. In addition, the artist makes his voice sound remorseful because the tone of his singing style and with the combination of the lyrics together makes the overall sound become emotional. I also believe that because the artist is singing the song slowly the song also allows you to achieve the remorse the man is feeling. I believe Ramon Ayala only
Ragland, Cathy. Música Norteña: Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation between Nations. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 2009. Print.
Abrasive rock music has rarely been considered a potent political force in the United States. Punk is no exception to this rule. As a subculture, punk has received much more atention for its hairstyles and caustic sounds than its politics. As Daniel Rosenblat points out, punk rock “Confound[s] our conventional (western) notions of politics by [its] emphasis on maters which we consign to different domains entirely” (1). What he means i s that because punk does not express its political discourse in traditional venues or traditional terms, it is discounted as apolitical or politicaly impotent. To wit, Hebdige argues that subcultures can do litle more than provide a ‘signal of Refusal,’ and should be considered “just the darker side of sets of regulations” (3). Latino punks have countered these claims since the 1970s, with lyrical assertions that their political speech is an essential precursor to political change. In this paper I explore the ways in which contemporary Latino punk self -defines as political, in contrast to early punk bands who refused to be affiliated with politics. By explicitly aligning with political causes, Latino punk establishes a tension between punk’s historical tendencies towards ‘forgetfulness’ and ‘self -fulfilment,’ and new political agendas that push awareness and change. I conclude by asserting that the punk movement is preoccupied with individual fulfilment at the expense of political activism, a tendenc y that ultimately undermines its political import.
The Latin American music scene is an amazingly diverse, engaging and entertaining music culture. Thomas (2011) explains, “…Latin American music has engaged in ongoing dialogue and cultural exchange that has profoundly affected music making in Europe and the United States and, more recently, in Africa and Asia as well”. This paper will be describing different aspects of the music culture from its musical features, to the historical aspect of this interesting music culture. Also, I will discuss a personal experience with Latin American music. After researching the music culture, I attended a concert performed by Boogat, an Emmy award nominated Latin American musician from Quebec who has toured all over North America. Latin American music culture
This is the song that Jose sings before the garden party is held. It’s ironic how she can sing a song about life being weary, a tear-a sigh when she cannot-could not, even remotely relate to ever being in the position of being weary. She is singing about something that she doesn’t understand, something she can’t feel. She can’t sing it with any real compassion, because she has none. This shows when she breaks into a brilliant smile at the end of the song, which is supposed to be full of sadness. This is what gives the effect of...