Urban corrido and the globalization of Mexican culture

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By Luis Omar Montoya Arias

In May 1948, just after the end of World War II, worldwide newspapers reported on a music project led by the BBC in London. This was “Música del Pueblo,” a series that offered a panoramic view of musical richness through five different 28-minute programs. Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina represented the American continent. The programs were distributed to radio stations in 60 different countries, including Ceylon, Egypt, Iceland, Romania, and Finland (“Mexican songs distributed from London, worldwide,” in Guanajuato. Diario del Bajío, Thursday, May 6, 1948).

The Mexican Revolution of 1910 globalized Mexican culture. Mexico’s was the first revolution of the 20th century, followed by the Russian [1917], Chinese [1949], and Cuban [1959] revolutions. The Mexican Revolution of 1910 gave legitimacy to the Mexican people and virally spread their art, culture, and history. “For Latin Americans, Mexico was a prism, a laboratory, a desirable reality” (Melgar, Ricardo, “Political-cultural practices and Latin American images of the Mexican Revolution,” in Revista Regiones, year 7, number 43, Colectivo Antropólogos en Fuga y Compañía, Mexico, October-December 2010, p.5).

Intellectuals from different Latin American countries wrote books about the Mexican Revolution, such as Oscar Tenorio, a Brazilian author of “Revolutionary Mexico: Small comments on the Mexican Revolution and its consequences,” in 1928. Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre, a Peruvian, authored “For the Emancipation of Latin America” [1927] and “Anti-Imperialism and APRA” [1928]. Jose Carlos Mariátegui promoted the principles raised by the Mexican Revolution; the Bolivian Tristán Marof wrote “Mexico. Front and Profile” in 1934, and Esteban Pavletich, a poet and secretary of Augusto César Sandino, was the author of “Message to Mexico” [1934] (Ibid, p.6).

During the 1920s, Latin Americans sought refuge in Mexico because “it was where free men lived.” There was a panoramic view of the continent in Mexico, and the Mexican Revolution was an example for oppressed peoples (Topasso, Hernán, “Tristán Marof in Mexico,” in Revista Regiones, year 7, number 43, Colectivo Antropólogos en Fuga y Compañía, Mexico, October-December 2010, p.16). In Guatemala, for example, progressive newspapers expressed admiration for Mexico for its educational drive, nationalism, dignification of letters and arts, which the Revolution of 1910 represented.

The Imparcial, Guatemala’s capital newspaper, promoted all things Mexican to generate a closer relationship. The Central American newspaper promoted the history of distinguished Mexicans (Taracena, Arturo, “Vasconcelos and his agents in the Guatemalan reception of the Mexican Revolution,” in Revista Regiones, year 7, number 43, Colectivo Antropólogos en Fuga y Compañía, Mexico, October-December 2010, p.30).

The historical antecedents demonstrate that Mexican culture has always been powerful and global. The relevance of Mexican music is timeless.

What is the urban corrido?

The urban corrido, also defined as “corrido tumbado,” is a variant within a large musical tradition that solidified its social function during the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The Mexican corrido is dynamic in nature and has regional variations. One of the historical characteristics of the Mexican corrido is its sense of politicization. While not a rule, but rather a constant, the corrido of the last two decades is no longer a space for questioning and social criticism.

Today, the corrido serves to dumb down and blind the spirit. The new Mexican corrido is, in itself, a drug. The Mexican corrido of the 21st century must be understood as a drug for mass consumption. Let us not evade the ethical discussion of this phenomenon.

Urban corrido, corrido tumbado, and corrido bélico are market categories. The same thing happened during the presidency of Felipe Calderón with the Movimiento Alterado and with progressive corridos; the former created by the Cuates Valenzuela and the latter by Ángel del Villar. The precise name to define the corridos heard in the present time [2023] is urban corridos. Why? Because they take up musical and cultural elements [performance] of trap, rap, hip-hop, and reggaeton. The urban corrido is a continental cultural hybridization.

Corridos tumbados comes from the album that Natanael Cano released in 2019. Just as in the late 1980s, when Los Tigres del Norte circulated their album, “Corridos Prohibidos,” today, cultural industries take advantage of the title of a record production to baptize a musical subgenre.

The corrido is of a literary and musical nature. In the public sphere, almost always, the discussion focuses on the literary and forgets the musical. And that is because music, like mathematics, is incomprehensible to most of us.

Let’s take the recent presentation of Peso Pluma on the Jimmy Fallon show [April 2023] as an example. The performer appears with six musicians: two charchetas, a trombone, a tololoche, a guitar, and a requinto. That is, a brass section and a string section. The charchetas and the tololoche create the harmony, while the requinto fulfills the melody. The urban corrido dispenses with the accordion, a socio-musical circumstance that represents a change within the world of the corrido, from an ethnomusicological perspective.

In the urban corrido, the accordion does not exist. It is the requinto that makes the musical bridges. Let us be clear that this form of instrumentation is not so new in the world of the corrido. Let’s think about Julio Chaidez back in 2005: he already used charchetas and tololoche, along with the accordion. Strictly speaking, the great contribution of the urban corrido, from instrumentation, is the replacement of the accordion with the requinto. In turn, the requinto is taken from the tradition of the rural music of Angostura, Sinaloa, whose greatest historical reference is the duo, Miguel and Miguel.

Although the instrumental lineup used in the urban corrido is close to norteño-banda and bandeño, the way of executing, assimilating, and creating music is very different. These instruments are well known in the Mexican Pacific, but the way they are developed by the urban corrido is unique. It is another sensibility. The instruments may be the same, but the internalization of art always changes.

Today, Peso Pluma and Eslabón Armado occupy the number one spot in global music consumption. Today,

Today, fragmentation prevails in music. Today, the ways of measuring musical consumption are different. Today, Spotify validates the product. Music moves in digital nodes and streaming platforms. Today, record labels and their old strategies are obsolete. Today, artists don’t need to record an album. Now, individual songs are recorded, and each one functions as a single. Music has changed, as has its production, distribution, and consumption.

I have no doubt that there is money from drug trafficking behind urban corridos, but regardless of this financial reality, we must answer the following questions: What does urban music production and consumption tell us about societies? Why, with so much Mexican music available, does urban corrido dethrone Caribbean reggaeton? And don’t respond from the simplicity and resentment that characterizes the Aguilar family. The equation is not that simple.

We may like or not like the music of Junior H, Natanael Cano, Peso Pluma, and Fuerza Regida, but the fact is that they encompass a socio-musical phenomenon that must be addressed and studied. Urban corrido and its success demonstrate that Mexican culture is still alive and well in the world. Purists will say that they are not Pedro Infante or Jorge Negrete, but come on, times change, tastes and cultural consumption do too. What’s important is the global hegemony of Mexican music. Centuries come and go, and Mexican music continues to set the tone.

The style we know today as urban corrido emerged in 2018 with the live album that Fuerza Regida recorded, but it was categorized in 2019 with Natanael Cano’s musical work. This means that in a period of five and a half years, the urban corrido reached the pinnacle of global success. Mexican music is back in fashion. The economic benefit will be for the entire Mexican cultural industry.

In a subsequent writing, I would like to talk about Luis R. Conriquez and the war corridos. For now, I just invite you to listen to the latest corrido from the Sonoran-born artist: “La Tamalera”. The new Conriquez song revolves around remorse, guilt, good example, indecency, and disobedient sons. It’s a corrido from beginning to end…a corrido from the old school, accompanied by a band.