Regional Mexican music is dominating the Billboard charts thanks to artists such as Peso Pluma, Fuerza Regida, Carin León, Banda MS and Edén Muñoz. Overall, the Mexican style is having an unprecedented year, with consumption up 42.1% so far in 2023, outpacing all genres except K-pop, which is up 49.4%. As of July 15 alone, 27 Mexican regional tracks entered the Billboard Hot 100.
But what, exactly, is Mexican music — or as it is better known in many places, regional Mexican music?
The general term encompasses many subgenres, from corridos and mariachi to norteño and banda. Historically, Mexican music — alive for more than a century and a half — has had a strong presence on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Mariachi was symbolic of Mexico internationally, with which the country was recognized by outsiders. It is arguably the most international Mexican style, thanks to legends such as Vicente Fernández — and, before him, Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete and José Alfredo Jiménez, during the great Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1950s.
Two decades ago, the rise of Sinaloan banda and norteño music (named after the region where it was born) came to complement the strength of Mexican music with new sounds and new forms.
For example, pioneering artists like Sinaloa native Ariel Camacho led the sierreño style with Los Plebes del Rancho. Although his life was cut short at the age of 22 in 2015, years later he inspired a whole group of Generation Z musicians, such as Ivan Cornejo and Yahritza y Su Esencia, who have brought the movement to the masses. Similarly, Sonora-born Natanael Cano, also inspired by Camacho, revamped the corridos with his own tumbado version and gave them a more streetwise approach, closer to the current generation.
Mexican music has gone from being a niche genre to securing a global audience thanks to a traditional musical base such as Banda MS or the revolutionary new approach of Peso Pluma. Over the last five years, the genre grew 604% in Mexico, compared to 212% in the United States and more than 400% globally on Spotify.
“Música mexicana has gone through a similar evolution that reggaetón also went through when it blew up; [the artists have] modernized the way they look, the way they write lyrics, creating a movement for their generation,” Maykol Sánchez, head of artist and label partnerships for Latin America and U.S. Latin at Spotify, previously told Billboard. “It has been a long time coming, and Mexican being such a strong culture in the U.S. with the population, it just makes sense.”
Across the border, in the United States — home to the second largest Mexican community in the world — this genre is constantly evolving and continues to be the soundtrack of multigenerational households. Below, Billboard Español dissects the nuances and rhythms that exist within the burgeoning Mexican music scene.
— With additional reporting by Griselda Flores and Isabela Raygoza.
