Norteño

Like in Mexico, you have got lots of different types around.

Yeah, you've got Norteno, you, yeah.

But, you know, like in the '80s and '90s, like rock, uh, like, well, rock en Espanol-

Mm-hmm

But the customer was in a hurry and the pay was worth it.

So I filled my thermos with coffee, tuned the radio to a Norteño music station that barely came through the static, and headed for the national highway.

The first few hours went like any other trip.

The heavy traffic in Monterrey, the way out through Juarez and Cadareta, the sun setting quickly around 7.30, and the sky turning that dull dirty orange stirred up by the dust.

I turned on the radio.

A station was playing Norteño music.

I listened more out of habit than because I liked it.

The noise kept me company.

Este es su segundo álbum bajo su propio sello discográfico, Copac Music.

El proyecto celebra la música de mariachi marcando un giro especial en su carrera, pues cuatro de las canciones cuentan con arreglos tradicionales, alejándolo del estilo norteño y de banda por el que es conocido el cantante.

Durante la presentación del proyecto, Julión Álvarez declaró que siempre disfrutó tener mariachi en sus presentaciones, pero apenas hace algunos años decidió ponerse el traje de charro y pedir consejos sobre cómo portarlo correctamente.

Y Grupo Firme está rompiendo récord durante su gira por Europa.

That's one of those eternal riffs, right? Like a song that, uh, it, it's always existed in a certain sense, what you're talking about, you know? But this Bo Diddley thing, I mean, the influence of...

I think The Smiths are understandably thought of as a sort of Anglophile prospect, right? Uh, even though there's been awesome stuff like, have you heard the, the EZ Band, this Norteno group that does, uh, This Charming Man? It, anyway, it's fantastic.

The E- the EZ Band, they do a Norteno version and it's got accordion and it's beautiful.

And it's this interesting thing where Latin America has adopted the Anglophileness of The Smiths.

But then there's this beautiful cultural feedback that goes back into this loop where that's connected to Black American music, you know? This sort of powerful way that transmits that influence even into the most chiming, jangle...

Here at tuba on stage, and you think classic band is sure, but that same tuba underpinned early New Orleans jazz.

And the accordion in Norteño, a straight line from 19th century German and Czech polkas and waltzes in Texas and northern Mexico.

So the quintessential Norteño sound has poke bones.

That flips my map a little.

It's a pot that's been simmering for a century.

You

know, that's, that I find fascinating how, for our listeners, explain what Norteño music is.

Yeah, so Norteño music is, Norteño, it's called Norteño because it's part of the north, north part of Mexico.

Yeah.

And, Norteño stands for north.

North, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

So we just want to, and that type of music is very popular currently in Europe.

Sí, con pánico.

Hasta, eh, desfiles militares que paralizan ciudades enteras, conciertos de música norteña a todo volumen y bebidas que literal se llaman terremotos.

Qué locura.

Y bueno, vamos a desempacar esto paso a paso, porque la forma en que se celebra la libertad hoy explica muchísimo más sobre estas sociedades que los propios documentos que declararon esa libertad.

O sea, antes de que la presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum salga al balcón del Palacio Nacional a las veintitrés horas para dar el solemne grito, eh, el Zócalo ya opera como una verbena masiva.

Sí, es una fiesta total.

Hay conciertos de la banda norteña Intocable tocando frente a miles de personas.

Tocando temas de desamor como ¿Y todo para qué? Imagínate el contraste.