What's on Mexican Radio?

yeah sorry but since i heard i've had that mexican radio song stuck in my head.

Is there a non-hype button or switch on the guy, or did that break off?

as fer myself, i'd really like to know what real Mexican radio sounds like -- like, the stuff they play in Guadalajara, Chiapas, Oaxaca, etc. my wet dream is that it's some sort of y tu mama tambien mix to the nth degree, though i suspect that's not really so.

http://www.elijahwald.com/images/narcocd.jpg

-- Tad (llamasfu...), September 20th, 2003

Anglo dross has slowly taken over the airwaves, I'm sad to report. Avril Lavigne and Coldplay happen to be the biggest artists in Mexico right now. It's commonly that or your standard Latin pop fare that gets the heavy rotation. Although a fair amount of trova, rock en español, and narcocorridos are played regularly on smaller trad music stations. It hasn't gone quite the way of Clear Channel yet, but the quality of Mexican radio is definitely degrading.

very cool.

(where's the book?)

finished. not the opus that has been taking me years to write but my quickie rock biog! ha! it's like a bank robbery, you know.

(anyone know why when the britmedia talks about promoting "young british talent" they mean "young british talent that sounds like old british talent" ie. "young white british talent"?)

nah. he played noise, folk, hip-hop, kraut rock, american and european band, stressing,no xenophobic reaction there, it was cool because he letting unsigned kids get a chance. some of it was very very good.

(why is the british music press more reactionary now than it was ten, fifteen, twenty years ago? how did it get this way?)(did noone learn anything from britpop?)(as in "DON'T do this"?)

it was a cool contrary show. the press release makes me laugh because it's bringing in young white british listening wating the next oasis or chain. but yeah i can only see the show as a good thing and i didnt even like everything he played but a) it was inteesting b) it reminded me of what early john peel sounded like. this can only be a good thing.

Mexican music is the huge seller in the U.S., and the sales reports reflect that. In fact, an argument can be effectively made that it's really Mexican music that is driving the whole Latin music scene in the U.S. because.

Try reading Ramiro Burr (in Texas) for more info on the scene there.

fair comment to my throw-away-comment - i meant the radio show in itself was very low key, mcgee introducing tracks, the town or city or country where they were from, or even saying 'some kid handed me this in my club, no email, no contact, no band name but it's really good ...

to be honest i never heard john peel but from the written descriptions, i thought it would be the type of show which would play a variety of sounds, that were good or bad or brilliant, of things that i've not heard of, etc ... dunno james, just sort of like, a adventurous show that would be playing new artists with no marketing plot, etc - so valid in the way that i was actually interested in listening to music on a radio show that held my interest because of it's diversity ... a musical curiousity seekers show ... so yeah that was valid ... i stayed up and listened expecting to be bored shitless to be honest because i never listened to the radio and have not done so in 15 years but yeah the show got me which surprise me because i am a stereo-nazi who would usually go 'why listen to the radio ... my music collection is right over there ...' and hearing bands that i've never heard that nobody has heard was cool. that is my rambling explanation ...

Amigo, that's true everywhere, I'm afraid. The thing to keep in mind is Mexican music is "invisible" everywhere, even in regions where there are large Hispanic populations. You only hear it in L.A. or anywhere else because of radio broadcast power -- that reminds people it's around. And it's around, just like it always has been ... maybe not so audible in Boston or Philadelphia yet, but it soon will be.

Damn, I knew that it had raised a ruckus but I hadn't realized it had gotten that far. Thanks for the update!

http://www.elijahwald.com/corcensors.html

Not quite. They've tried, but mostly to no avail. You can't mess wit true padrotes, "ese"!

Ned and Francis have pretty much nailed it down. I eat at taco shops, oh, about twice a day and it's pretty much ranchera blasting out the kitchen 24/7. if anyone can't follow the conversation, ranchera is like a fusion of polka and contemporary country (of course the singing is all in spanish).

the funny thing to me is how the narco-corrido stuff sounds 100% indistinguishable from traditional ranchera.

Definitely depends on the shop. Taco Mesa, one of my holy food places, plays some of that but also a lot of roc en espanol (why can't I get the tilda to work here, feh) and some pop. First place where I heard Mana and La Ley, for better or for worse.

the funny thing to me is how the narco-corrido stuff sounds 100% indistinguishable from traditional ranchera.

That's part of the damn fun of it all -- most of the difference is strictly lyrical.

also mexican radio IS audible in the US.

Everyone ever in San Diego of a certain age can repeat the 91X callsign without a hitch.

And thinking of Jaguares again, having invoked them already, friend Stripey today noted that it's the common problem that once you start wearing the leather pants you end up like Bon Jovi.

The news is that the little bitty Spanish language stations that broadcast only for a few hours on Sunday afternoons have hung on because they're something a large population wants to hear. Now having proved their commercial viability (successful commercials in Spanish certainly helped), the stations have been scooped up and recombined under a larger aegis, broadcasting on three major channels with a large sweep 24/7.

Rancheras, rancheras, rancheras, some corrido, cumbia, banderas, some older romanticas. Lots of oldies but goodies. Not too much Los Lobos on the airwaves (not just because of Clear Channel preference, but because I think Lobos are regarded as "urban"). Los Lobos do make regular yearly visits on the fringes of the concert circuit here, while people came out in mass for Los Tigres. Even an art band from San Francisco made it in to a local club once. But most of the live Mexican music happens at family sit-down restaurants, or very funky bars in remote towns on the edges of the growing fields, some special nights at casinos, and at Mexican rodeos, peach festivals, and so on and is performed by more traditional bands from Mexico that are hooked into this type of touring circuit.

So that's it, if you want to hear the music you have to go where the people are.

Oh my fucking God, Ramiro Burr, mentioned on ILM!!! My life is flashing before my eyes. *laughs* I'm sorry, but I've just gotten a huge shock noticing a reference to a local newspaper columnist on this huge international forum.

And maybe Texas is a whole 'nother country, but over here whenever you go to a Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant, you're most likely to hear Tejano music than anything else. Tejano music basically encompasses all sorts of different types of music. You're likely to hear cumbias right next to mariachi songs, right next to polkas and Norteño songs and slightly salsa-fied songs in Spanish and wannabe cowboy-type songs. It's a wide range of different varieties of music, none of which I'm interested in. (Ok, so it can be fun dancing to cumbias, but I'm sure as heck not going to, oh, say, dl it off a file sharing program and play it over and over again.)

In fact, whenever there are familial gatherings such as quinceaneras and wedding receptions, you're pretty much guaranteed that at least 1/3 of the time you're there the DJ will be playing Tejano, i.e. the huge umbrella of different things which in the end sound similarly nauseating to me. If you're really lucky, the DJ will do a reprieve and rescue you with... 1/3 country and 1/3 "urban" music. Usually the thoughts that run through my mind include the general thought, "Oh dear God in Heaven above, rescue me from this!"

God, I'm proud to be who I am ethnically, but damn we suck at creating music. Why can't there be, for example, a Mexican Joe Jackson, for example? Or a Mexican Ladytron? Cripes, if there was a Mexican Joe Jackson or Mexican Ladytron, I'd be so damn ecstatic because that'd mean there'd actually be some hope for us.

Oh come on, tell the truth -- you liked Cri Cri once, didn't you?

http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=710&xlc=1057052

Um...whatcha talkin' 'bout, Willis? Mexico has birthed some of the greatest rock en español tuneage ever, unless you're referring strictly to Tejano music, 'cuz in that case!...

Mexican Ladytron = Colectivo Nortec (maybe)

I dunno 'bout a Mexican Joe Jackson, but maybe of an Argentinian equivalent (thinking Charly García here)...

And why not download 'narcos'? I know plenty of people my age that do. They're fun!

Offside, while I was down in Mexico, the music that was picked for quinceañeras was mostly of the American AOR or golden oldies variety. The Platters "Only You" comes to mind, ishityounot.

Golden oldies -- early rock, soul, r'n'b -- is the musical lifeblood of I don't know how many Chicano folks around the LA area and beyond, though I admit I'm not sure if this is specifically of a certain older generation or from then to now. But last I checked at least a few AM radio station still happily thrive playing just that for their audiences.

Jumping countries a hell of a long way, can I just say again how great Babasonicos are? Thanks.

An appropriate reaction, you skinflint. ;-)

Any other Mexican music of note this year?

Revive:
Cri-Cri ...classic, dud or racist