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Corrido: A Mexican narrative song typically about famous figures, significant events, or social commentary.

Narcocorrido: A subgenre of corrido that focuses on drug cartels.

Protagonista: The main character or figure in a corrido.

Romance: Corridos about love

Contraband: Smuggling or illegal trade.

Narco: Drug Trafficker

Despedida: The concluding verse of a corrido

Corrido Belico: A subgenre that focuses on violent conflicts.

Accordion: Provides the medolic foundation.

Bajo Sexto: A Mexican 12 string guitar-like instrument.

Tuba: A brass instrument that produces a deep, resonant bass sound.

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Ariel Camacho - La Vida Ruina ft. Marca Registrada

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The rally for immigration reform became a singalong Tuesday afternoon for thousands on the otherwise shutdown Mall. Los Tigres del Norte - the biggest, most beloved band that many English-speaking Americans have never heard of - were onstage, and almost everyone in the audience seemed to know every word.

Enraptured participation is typical fan behavior the world over, of course, but the explanation for the phenomenon at a Los Tigres show is a little special. Their lyrics are like news bulletins from the lives of immigrants. Some members of the San Jose-based band - whose name translates as "the Tigers of the North" - were once undocumented immigrants from Mexico.

"We all have experienced some of what they are singing about," said Emma Flores-Klein, an office worker from Salisbury, Md., who came from El Salvador 28 years ago. "We don't have it all. We don't have our families. We make so many dollars, but we can't share our love with our loved ones."

Which is basically the message of the Tigres song "The Cage of Gold" - a story of that bittersweet sense of accomplishment in a new land at the cost of losing connections in the old one.

"All their songs express what the people feel, and the majority of their songs are true," said Ixsa Robles of Arlington, who sang along to the song "Jose Perez Leon," which, she explained, "is the story of immigrants who wanted to cross to here and asphyxiated on a train."

The devotion spans generations and crosses borders. "I like that they support us, and whenever we need cheering up, their songs are always there for us," said Kimberly Magaña, 13, Robles's niece. "My dad is a number-one fan."

"Los Tigres haven't forgotten their humility," said Nelson Medina, 42, visiting from Honduras. "They understand the aspirations of the people."

Appeal without borders

Los Tigres del Norte - four brothers and a cousin - looked like businessmen in their dark suits at breakfast in a downtown hotel Tuesday. They maintain courtly, old-world manners. As each entered the breakfast area, he walked around the table, shaking hands with associates and kissing fellow band members on the cheek.

They had played shows in three towns in Mexico on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, finishing between 3 and 5 each morning. Shows usually end that late in order to satisfy all fans' requests for songs and photos. Los Tigres are scheduled to perform and be honored Wednesday at the Billboard Mexican Music Awards in Hollywood. Then they are off to perform in Bogota, Colombia's capital.

The logistics are staggering. They have a Mexican set of equipment - for shows in that country and internationally - and an American set of equipment. The Mexican gear was pressed into service for Washington, because the American set was needed in Hollywood. Both sets include drums, accordions, electric bass, saxophone and three bajo quintos or bajo sextos, which are 10- and 12-string guitarlike instruments.

Usually the band members come in for breakfast after a show, then sleep until late afternoon. This time, they were due for a sound check on the Mall at 9 a.m.

"We'll see how our bodies react," said Jorge Hernandez, the eldest brother and leader of the band. He's about 60 and sings and plays accordion. "Since we were little kids we have traveled. We don't have another life."

Brothers Hernan, Eduardo and Luis Hernandez and cousin Oscar Lara round out the group.

In a car on the way to the Mall, Hernan told the story of how Los Tigres came to be. In 1968, after the brothers - including some who are no longer in the band - had been playing for a few years as children to support the family, they were offered some gigs in California. They had temporary work visas. A border agent asked the name of the band. Since they didn't have one, and the agent was impressed with their drive, he called them the Little Tigers. They modified it to be the Tigers of the North.

A promoter stole their documentation in California. They overstayed their visas. Now all are citizens, except Eduardo, who is a legal resident.

Early on, they hit on the formula of writing songs about the lives of their audiences. "We noticed how our fans lived and worked," Hernan said.

One of the first songs in that vein, from the early 1970s, was "Vivan los Mojados" - "Long Live the Wetbacks."

Their sound is known as norteño, a kind of Mexican country music featuring high, tight harmonies, a strong one-two beat and carefully enunciated words. Their preferred song form is the corrido, a narrative slice of life. They have recorded 500 songs, sold 37 million albums and won six Grammys and six Latin Grammys.

"We have, I think, 30 songs related to immigration, so it's easy for us to put together" a program for the rally on the Mall, Jorge said. "We don't do imagination. We do the real stuff."

'Mas congresistas!'

The plan at the rally was for Los Tigres to weave together four blocks of songs that would reflect some of the themes that speakers would address between sets of music - including immigrants who die trying to cross the frontier, children whose parents are deported and immigrant soldiers who give their lives for the United States. CASA of Maryland and the Service Employees International Union organized the rally.

"Our lyrics are not fads," said Luis. "With songs like 'The Black Door' " - about frustrated love - "and 'Three Times a Wetback' " - about crossing from El Salvador to Guatemala to Mexico to the United States - "time goes by and those songs are still in the minds of the people."

In a tent behind the stage, the band members changed into their black boots, shiny gold pants and tiger-print blazers. Jorge and Hernan paced around singing scales to warm up their voices. Jorge donned a black Stetson cowboy hat with the Los Tigres del Norte label. A parade of nearly a dozen members of Congress came to ask for photos with the band - an excellent trophy for appealing to Latino voters.

The band was about to go onstage when word came: "Mas congresistas!"

More members of Congress.

The introduction of the band by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was drowned out by the roar of the crowd, pressing toward the stage with cellphone cameras raised. The first figures Jorge played on his accordion were enough for the audience to recognize "De Paisano a Paisano" ("From Countryman to Countryman") and the group singing began.
I've spent my life exploring other lands To give my children a better tomorrow.
Next was "Mis Dos Patrias" ("My Two Countries"):
Don't call me traitor, I love my two countries. In one I left my dead, here my children were born.
Lila Downs, another star of Mexican American music, came onstage to sing two duets with Jorge, including "The Cage of Gold."

"Basically they're like historians, musical historians, who really explain in very simple words the immigrant experience," Downs said of the band backstage before the performance.

Now she and Jorge conjured the drama of a heartsick, undocumented immigrant. He feels trapped in his home, afraid of deportation, pining for Mexico, needing his American job, while his children forget their Spanish and don't care about their roots.

Jorge and Downs, and hundreds of supporting voices, join on the chorus:
Even if the cage is made of gold, It's still a prison.

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Los Tigres del Norte sing 'the real stuff' at immigration rally

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The rally for immigration reform became a singalong Tuesday afternoon for thousands on the otherwise shutdown Mall. Los Tigres del Norte - the biggest, most beloved band that many English-speaking Ame...

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Outrage spread like wildfire across social media last year when video surfaced of a 15-year-old girl from central Mexico dancing to a narcocorrido at her quinceñera celebration instead of a traditional waltz accompanied by her father. But what is behind the appeal of such songs for young people today?

Pretending to be the Queen of the South telenovela star in a white dress, shorter than a traditional long, pastel-colored gown, the young girl acted out a scene where she is attacked by sicarios, or hitmen, before the police eventually come to her rescue and save her, with the narcocorrido ballad "Sanguinarios del M1" by Movimiento Alterado playing in the background.

"With an AK-47 and a bazooka on my shoulder, cross my path and I'll chop your head off, we're bloodthirsty, crazy, and we like to kill," the song goes.

("Sanguinarios del M1" by Movimiento Alterado)

Young people are not alone in this fascination of outlaws. Many across Latin America have been captivated by criminals - from the likes of Pablo Escobar in Colombia to former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias "El Chapo" - who were able to skirt the law and evade capture for years. The elusive lifestyle of such figures, far outside what is considered ordinary, is exciting and intriguing.

The 'Outlaw' Appeal

The outlaw lifestyle has a certain appeal to young listeners, who are attracted to narcocorridos - a sub-genre of norteño style folk music - in part because it has been stigmatized and prohibited in many places across Mexico and the United States, according to Miguel Cabañas, an associate professor at Michigan State University who studies the popular cultural representation of drug trafficking.

"When governments started saying we should ban these songs and control them, young people from marginalized cultures were attracted to this 'forbidden fruit,'" Cabañas told InSight Crime.

In Mexico, northwest Chihuahua state has banned live performances of narcocorridos or the playing of such songs on the radio. When they are played, famous groups like Los Tigres del Norte have been fined up to $25,000 for violating city laws. But trying to forbid these types of songs has had the reverse effect on young people, according to Cabañas, drawing them into the music officials wish they'd stay away from.

This dynamic isn't exclusive to narcocorridos. Famous hip-hop groups like NWA in the United States have also written songs romanticizing the lifestyles of drug traffickers and portraying the lives of marginalized communities, attracting the likes of teenagers and young adults while stirring plenty of public controversy.

However, narcocorridos aren't simply just songs that glamorize drug trafficking, they're critiques of the realities faced by many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans affected first by the so-called "war on drugs" in the United States, and later by Mexico's US-backed war against drug trafficking.

Taking Back the 'War on Drugs'

Many of the original creators of narcocorridos came from Mexico's gulf state of Sinaloa, according to Cabañas, which makes up one part of the so-called "Golden Triangle" region in western Mexico that has long served as a major producer of opium - the raw ingredient needed to make heroin - and marijuana.

Sinaloa is also at the center of the drug war launched by former President Felipe Calderón in 2006. This "war" rages on today , despite serious questions regarding its efficacy after more than 200,000 people have been killed and thousands more disappeared in its wake.

These singers grew up listening to banda, a style of music typically played with wind instruments, mostly of brass and percussion, that isn't very different from the norteño music that is played in northern Mexico and associated with narcocorridos.

SEE ALSO: InDepth Coverage of NarcoCulture

Without government support and lacking many economic or employment opportunities outside of drug production in these rural areas, some locals turned to writing songs about the realities they witnessed every day, often relating to , but also touching on government corruption and traffickers in the drug trade other topics.

Narcocorridos offered a local take on events that were often mischaracterized in the media, according to Cabañas, which citizens have long been weary of given its long history of being influenced by political operators and silenced by criminal actors and government officials.

"The narcocorrido has always had a critical eye on things that are happening during the war on drugs," Cabañas said. "It offers a popular way to revisit certain events that happened and how people view them."

An Alternative Opportunity

What's more, singing narcocorridos offered some community members an opportunity to benefit economically and take back a piece of the US-supported war against drug production in Mexico. It's one way locals can process trauma that the war on drugs has caused, while also fighting back against government policies that effectively destroy one of, if not the only way, to earn a living in regions where the government has failed to provide alternatives.

This, according to Cabañas, gets at the heart of the misunderstandings surrounding narcocorridos.

"It's a cultural product [narcocorridos] that's stigmatized because people don't understand it," Cabañas said. "It's easier to say that, well, all these people have this culture that is violent. But they don't understand the context of the war on drugs, how that's affected communities and the complex way of how this trauma of violence in Mexico is processed."

Despite efforts from several Mexican states to ban narcocorridos , the idea that getting rid of such songs is going to solve Mexico's record levels of crime and violence is something Cabañas says is "totally insane."

"If we didn't have narcocorridos, we'd still have narcos and the war on drugs. Things aren't going to change because there's no music talking about it. It's the social and political conditions that are creating the drug trade."

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Mexico's Narcocorridos: A Case of Misunderstanding?

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Outrage spread like wildfire across social media last year when video surfaced of a 15-year-old girl from central Mexico dancing to a narcocorrido.

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Corridos Artist Peso Pluma on His Quest for Global Domination: ‘I’m Up for the Challenge’

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Peso Pluma gets candid about his music during an interview for this month’s Latin Artist on the Rise.

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Soy Grupero: ¡Lo mejor del mundo grupero! Entérate ahora.

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¿Quién es Luis R Conriquez y de dónde es? | Soy Grupero

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El cantante Luis R Conriquez gana popularidad entre los seguidores de la música mexicana y entre sus propios exponentes como La Adictiva y Gerardo Ortiz.

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Luis R. Conríquez: quieren nombrar calle como “El Rey de Corridos Bélicos”

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A pesar de que Caborca sufre los embates de la narcoviolencia, el alcalde buscaba nombrar el Bulevar 30 como Luis R. Conríquez, cantante de narcocorridos vigilado por la Sedena

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LISTEN: ‘Dembow Bélico’ Is a Thing Now, By Way of Peso Pluma’s Label

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Peso Pluma’s newly launched label Doble P Records released a song mixing dembow & corridos tumbados, titled “Dembow Bélico.”

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Regional Mexican Artist Ariel Camacho Dead at 22

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DEL Records artist Ariel Camacho died in a car accident early Wednesday (Feb. 25) in his native Sinaloa, Mexico. He was 22 years old.

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Remembering Ariel Camacho, the 22-year-old star of Mexico’s narcocorridos - The World from PRX

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Ariel Camacho, lead singer of the group Los Plebes del Rancho, was killed in a car accident on Wednesday. Just 22 years old, Camacho was already a big name in the world of narcocorridos, Mexico’s musical odes to drug trafficking culture.

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The 2020s has brought what I think will eventually be the biggest era of Mexican music ever. It brought Corridos Belicos with people like Tito Double P, Peso Pluma, Luis R Conriquez, Neton Vega, Gabito Ballesteros and Oscar Maydon. Corridos Belicos have been a big hit because they included instruments you had never heard in a corrido. Like the Trumpet and the Trombone. Corridos Belicos like Corridos Progresivos also talk about war, drug trafficking, guns, etc.

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The 2010's saw a new era of corridos that up until now have been the best era of corridos in my opinion. Los Corridos Progresivos. This era had artists like Calibre 50, Regulo Caro, El Komander, Alfredo Olivas, Larry Hernandex, and Gerardo Ortiz. Gerardo Ortiz explained Los Corridos progresivos as different from regular Corridos in the way where they are more upbeat and they talk about in 1st person rather than in 3rd person.

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1810- Mexican War of Independence: People would make songs and sing them

1910-1921- Mexican Revolution: There are many Corridos about the most famous Mexican revolutionist Pancho Villa.

1930s- The Golden Age of Mexican Cinema: Many Corridos were played in Cinema and that is where people heard them first.

1970- Formation of Los Tigres del Norte: Most famous group ever.

1984- Chalino Sanchez begins his career: Most famous artist ever.

2000s- Rise of Narcocorridos and Government Crackdowns

2020s- Corridos are growing in the United States and gaining more listeners every year.

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The most important are Los Tigres Del Norte. They are very important because they modernized the genre by addressing current issues like immigration and social justice in their songs. Their storytelling resonates with many people, making corridos relevant today. Their influence has helped keep the genre alive and popular across generations.

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Elijah Wald: Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas

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GAVILÁN II - Peso Pluma Ft. Tito Double P & Fuerza Regida

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EL KARMA con LETRA Ariel Camacho y Sus Plebes del Rancho Sierreño LYRIC VIDEO

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Los Tigres del Norte

Chalino Sanchez

Ramon Ayala

Gerardo Ortiz

Ariel Camacho

Luis R Conriquez

Tito Double P

Los Alegres Del Barranco : https://youtu.be/aJXrHFsrnQk?si=PrhzrXCOiHpT98_o

Peso Pluma

Gabito Ballesteros

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Cultural Studies: Examines the cultural significance of corridos within Mexican and Mexican-American communities, exploring themes of identity, resistance, and tradition.

Musicology: Focuses on the musical structure, history, and evolution of corridos, analyzing their melodies, rhythms, and instrumentation.

Literary Studies: Investigates the narrative techniques and poetic devices used in corridos, as well as their storytelling traditions.

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https://www.lanoria.tv/

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If you want to engage in listening to Corridos, you should go to live concerts or go to Pico Rivera Sports Arena. What I usually do since I'm pretty broke is I just put both of my airpods on and blast music and pretend I'm there.

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What historical events or social issues have inspired the creation of corridos?

How do corridos serve as a form of storytelling in Mexican and Mexican-American culture?

How has the musical style of corridos evolved over the decades?

What is your favorite kind of Corrido?

How do corridos differ from other traditional Mexican musical forms, such as rancheras or norteñas?

Who is your favorite corrido artist?

How do corridos address issues of immigration and the experiences of migrants?

Why are Los Tigres Del Norte so important in the history of corridos?

How has the rise of social media influenced the spread and evolution of corridos?

What are some corridos that have gained popularity outside of the Spanish-speaking world?

What type of corridos can I identify with?

What topics are often covered in Corridos?

How do lyrics in corridos address issues of crime and violence in Mexico?

What is your favorite song?

How are corridos usually structured?

Are there any modern corridos that address current issues?

Who Is the biggest artist right now?

What challenges do corrido artists face in maintaining traditional styles?

What roles do Corridos play in celebrations or festivals?

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His collaborations with Natanael Cano, "AMG" (alongside Gabito Ballesteros) and "PRC," became massive hits in the Latin music community after their popularity on TikTok, both charting on the Billboard Hot 100. In April 2023, Pluma and Eslabon Armado made history with "Ella Baila Sola," becoming the first regional Mexican song to reach the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, eventually peaking at number four. The commercial success of the song significantly boosted the singer's popularity worldwide, allowing him to place eight songs on the Hot 100 in the week of April 29, 2023, making him the Mexican artist with the most Spanish-language entries in the US. By the end of 2023, Spotify revealed that the song was the fifth most streamed song worldwide.

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José Ariel Camacho Barraza (July 8, 1992 – February 25, 2015) was a Mexican musician and singer-songwriter. He predominantly performed regional mexican music, mainly corridos. He was the lead singer and lead guitarist of his group, Ariel Camacho y Los Plebes Del Rancho. In 2013 Ariel Camacho y Los Plebes del Rancho signed to JG Records where they frequently played in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. In 2014 they signed with DEL Records,which allowed them to play their music in the United States. Many artists of the corridos tumbados scene cite Camacho as a source of inspiration, some of these artists include Natanael Cano, Peso Pluma, Junior H & Gabito Ballesteros.

Discography

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Ramón Ayala is a Mexican singer, accordion player, composer, and songwriter of Norteño music. He is also known as the "King of the Accordion." Ayala has won four Grammy Awards and received other recognitions for his career. In 2018, he received the keys to the city of Lynwood, CA.

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Conriquez specializes in a genre called corridos bélicos, which is similar to corridos tumbados but features lyrical elements of a narcocorrido. He is often referred to as the pioneer of the genre and is nicknamed "El Rey de Corridos Bélicos." The lyrics in his songs typically revolve around themes of heartbreak or everyday life, but he gained significant attention for his hit single "JGL" with La Adictiva, where the song title references Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, and the lyrics include mentions of Los Chapitos of the Sinaloa Cartel. He later began experimenting with dembow music, releasing the single "Dembow Bélico" with Tito Double P and Joel de la P, which also incorporated elements of a corrido. He has cited Gerardo Ortíz and Larry Hernández as inspirations for his music and has collaborated with both artists.

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I'm the youngest sibling, so everywhere I would go with my older sisters they would be the ones playing music, and they would play Corridos and then I fell in love with the music. Also, my dad is a big music guy and he loves to sing at parties so that is also why I fell in love, because that is all I heard growing up. Corridos are the only music I have listened to and I do not plan on changing that.