Norteño (literally meaning "northern" in
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
; also known as
norteña or
conjunto) is a genre of
Mexican musicThe music of Mexico is diverse and features a wide range of different musical styles influenced by a variety of cultures, most notably Amerindian and European...
. The
accordionThe accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox...
and the
bajo sextoA bajo sexto is a musical instrument with 12 strings in 6 double courses, used in Mexican music. It is used primarily in norteño music of northeastern Mexico and across the border in the music of south Texas known as "Tex-Mex," "conjunto," or "música mexicana-tejana"...
are norteño's most characteristic instruments. This genre of music is extremely popular among some in both
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, especially among the Mexican community. Though originating from rural areas, norteño is highly popular in urban as well as rural areas. Many norteño bands will have either "Los...del Norte," "Los...de (Tamulipas, Nuevo Leon, etc.)," or "Conjunto" as part of their name. Examples include
Los Tigres del NorteLos Tigres del Norte are a Grammy and Latin Grammy winning norteño-band ensemble, from Rosa Morada, Sinaloa, Mexico. The group was started by Jorge Hernández, his brothers, and his cousins. They began recording after moving to San José, California in the late 1960s, when all the members were still...
and Los Invasores De Nuevo Leon.
Some of the most popular norteño artists include
Los Cadetes De LinaresLos Cadetes de Linares are famously known for their corridos, ballad-style songs about famous criminals or heroes in the rural frontier of the US-Mexico border. They are a conjunto -- also known as a norteño group -- and their accordion and bajo sexto waltzes are well-known in both Mexico and the...
,
Flaco JiménezLeonardo "Flaco" Jiménez is a Tejano music accordionist from San Antonio, Texas. Jiménez's father, Santiago Jimenez Sr. was a pioneer of conjunto music. He began performing with his father at age seven and recording at age fifteen, as a member of Los Caporales...
, Ramón Ayala y sus Bravos del Norte, Los Alegres de Teran, Los Cachorros de Juan Villarreal, Los Invasores De Nuevo Leon, Los Donnenos, Los Gavilanes, Carlos y Jose, Los Alegres de Terán, and
Los Huracanes del NorteLos Huracanes del Norte are a Mexican Norteño group, originally from Yahualica, Jalisco but based out of San Jose, California, USA. They are one of the genre's most popular performers....
. Thanks to the popularity of radio stations playing regional Mexican music, many norteño artists have become widely popular among the Mexican-American community. Local radio stations have continued to be a major influence in popularizing norteño.
Origins
During the late 19th century, German and Czech migrants to Northern Mexico and the U.S. Southwest brought different styles among them:
la redova http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4r_qnIccVU&mode=related&search=,
la varsovianaVarsovienne, or varsoviana, is a slow, graceful dance in ¾ time with an accented down beat in alternate measures. It combines elements of waltz, mazurka and polka. The dance originated around 1850 in Warsaw, Poland....
http://econtent.unm.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/RobbFieldRecordings&CISOPTR=998&CISOBOX=1&REC=3 and the
polkaThe polka is a lively Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in the Czech lands and is still a common genre in Lithuanian, Czech, Croatian, Slovenian, Polish, German, Hungarian, Austrian,...
. These European immigrants fueled the demand for a local brewing industry, and they also influenced the music scene by bringing the
accordionThe accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox...
and the polka rhythm, which were part of the popular music of their homeland. Soon, local bands adopted these elements, and a new unique style gradually resulted from a blend with Mexican ranchera styles. This new style soon became a unique
norteño genre, thus named because it was primarily popular in the northern regions of Mexico.
In the late 1910s and 1920s, the corridos entered a golden age when Mexicans on both sides of the border recorded in
San AntonioSan Antonio is the second-largest city in the state of Texas and the seventh-largest city in the United States. The city is characteristic of other Southwest urban centers in which there are sparsely populated areas and a low density rate outside of the city. It was the fourth-fastest growing...
-area hotels, revolutionizing the genre alongside Mexico's political revolution. Later in the century,
Ramon AyalaRamon Ayala is a famous bajo sexto player from the Rio Grande Valley, Donna, Texas. He is the son of Pedro Ayala El Monarca del Acordeón, and has been referred to as the Best Bajo Sexto player ever. His progressive style and technique has earned him the 2009 Bajo Player of the Year Award from the...
,
Cornelio ReynaCornelio Reyna was a Mexican norteño singer.Cornelio Reyna formed a partnership with the legendary Ramon Ayala to create the famous duet called Los Relampagos del Norte in 1963. The band stayed together for eight years and then in 1971, Reyna decided to pursue a solo career as a mariachi singer...
, Los Invasores de Nuevo Leon and Carlos y Jose commercialized Northern music. Other bands such as
Los Tigres del NorteLos Tigres del Norte are a Grammy and Latin Grammy winning norteño-band ensemble, from Rosa Morada, Sinaloa, Mexico. The group was started by Jorge Hernández, his brothers, and his cousins. They began recording after moving to San José, California in the late 1960s, when all the members were still...
and Los Cadetes de Linares added influences from cumbia, rock music, and other new styles, thus creating a unique new blend in some of their new songs.
In sum, Norteño originated by the mix of Mexican son and German and Czech rhythms. Traditionally, norteño bands played
corridoThe corrido is a popular narrative song and poetry form, a ballad, of Mexico. It derives largely from the 18th century Spanish romance, and in its most known form consists of 1) a salutation from the singer and prologue to the story; 2) the story itself; 3) a moral and farewell from the...
s,
polkaThe polka is a lively Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in the Czech lands and is still a common genre in Lithuanian, Czech, Croatian, Slovenian, Polish, German, Hungarian, Austrian,...
s, and
rancheraThe ranchera is a genre of the traditional music of Mexico. Although closely associated with the mariachi groups which evolved in Jalisco in the post-revolutionary period, rancheras are also played today by norteño or banda groups...
s.
Norteño vs. Tejano
In the 1950s, the heavy influence of Norteño on the traditional music of Mexican-Americans in southern
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
gave rise to a new form of popular music, called
TejanoTejano music or Tex-Mex Music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Hispanic populations of Central and Southern Texas...
or "Tex-Mex", which is often influenced by American
rockRock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
and
swingSwing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and had solidified as a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...
. Tejano music often includes English and may sound much more like American rock and country music, but is a broad genre of music incorporating many different styles, all having origin in traditional Texas Mexican music.
However, because
Tejano musicTejano music or Tex-Mex Music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Hispanic populations of Central and Southern Texas...
is derived from Norteño music the two are often confused as different names for the same genre. Though Norteño came first, Tejano music is a norteño-derived genre and is not the same as norteño. [*
http://www.radiosinaloense.com/ The difference is easily heard in two different performances of the song "El Disgusto." Eddie Gonzalez is typical of Tejano music (
sound sample), while
Ramón AyalaRamón Ayala is an Mexican accordionist and songwriter. Ayala has defined much of modern norteño music with his distinctive accordion playing and lyrics. Though he added electric guitars and drums to his music, it retains a traditional northern ranchera style.-Career:Ayala, the son of musician...
(
sound sample) is typical of norteño music. Note that the Tejano style typical of Eddie Gonzalez's music is heavily influenced by American country music and
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
, while Ramón Ayala's music sounds much less Americanized and more rural and traditional.
Modernization of norteño
Modern norteño has also diverged significantly from more original "oldie" norteño, which was the type played by Jímenez and related groups before the 1950s. Since the 1970s and 1980s, electric bass guitars and modern percussion have been added to norteño music. The traditional guitar-and-accordion style of Los Alegres de Terán and
Antonio AguilarPascual Antonio Aguilar Barraza , most commonly known as Antonio Aguilar, was a Mexican singer, actor, producer, and writer. During his career, he made over 150 albums, which sold 25 million copies, and made 167 movies....
transformed into the modern style typical to that of
Los Tigres del NorteLos Tigres del Norte are a Grammy and Latin Grammy winning norteño-band ensemble, from Rosa Morada, Sinaloa, Mexico. The group was started by Jorge Hernández, his brothers, and his cousins. They began recording after moving to San José, California in the late 1960s, when all the members were still...
,
IntocableGrammy award winning superstar group Intocable is a Tejano/Norteño musical group from Zapata, Texas that was started by friends Ricky Muñoz and René Martínez in the early 90's...
, Pesado,
DueloDuelo is a Mexican band from Roma, Texas with a norteño style. The band is also known as Grupo Duelo and Duelo Norteño. The group rose to prominence in late 1990s and continues to record as of 2009, when their album Necesito Más de Tí debuted in the top slot on the Billboard Top Latin Albums...
and Oro Norteño. In the past, norteño bands consisted of an
accordionThe accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox...
as the lead instrument, with the
bajo sextoA bajo sexto is a musical instrument with 12 strings in 6 double courses, used in Mexican music. It is used primarily in norteño music of northeastern Mexico and across the border in the music of south Texas known as "Tex-Mex," "conjunto," or "música mexicana-tejana"...
s (a type of 12-string Mexican
guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
) serving as the roots of the music. Today, a typical norteño band usually includes a
drumThe drum is a member of the percussion group of music instruments, technically classified as a membranophone.. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some sort of...
set, and a
saxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bored transposing musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in 1841...
(e.g.,
http://sg1.allmusic.com/cg/smp.dll?r=20.asx&link=iwxn0ne4qdqg36sqt8vz5sa) or electronic keyboard may also be included.
Click here to hear what a typical norteño song sounds like.
(Un Puno De Tierra Ramon AyalaRamon Ayala is a famous bajo sexto player from the Rio Grande Valley, Donna, Texas. He is the son of Pedro Ayala El Monarca del Acordeón, and has been referred to as the Best Bajo Sexto player ever. His progressive style and technique has earned him the 2009 Bajo Player of the Year Award from the...
y sus Bravos del Norte)
Norteño became even more popular in the 1990s and 2000s in the United States as the
LatinoThe demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American or Spanish-speaking descent."* "A Latin American."...
-American community increased rapidly. Norteño continues to be one of the most popular types of modern Mexican music today, but it is also gaining rapid popularity in the United States. Many of the most famous Mexican bands such as Ramón Ayala y sus Bravos del Norte, Los
Dueto Voces del RanchoLos Dueto Voces del Rancho is a Mexican norteño band. The norteño band consists of a duet that has Edgar Rodriguez and Mariano Fernandez as its members. The band plays many traditional rancheras, but with a uniquely contemporary style....
,
Grupo Móntez de DurangoEl Grupo Montéz de Durango is a duranguense band currently based in Chicago, USA. This group is well known in the United States and some states in Mexico like Baja California, Sonora, Sinaloa, Jalisco and Zacatecas. The band remembers came from Santiago Papasquiaro, Durango, Mexico.One of the...
, and
Los Rieleros del Norte'Los Rieleros Del Norte'is a Mexican norteño band. Founded in the southwestern U.S. town of Pecos, Texas 1979 by Manolo Morales, Los Rieleros del Norte is one of the oldest norteño bands still playing today...
are all based in the United States with American labels, and their music is usually recorded and produced within the United States. This trend follows the rapid integration of Mexican-American immigrants into the United States. As norteño music is increasingly becoming integrated into American society, norteño, banda, and duranguense are not only Mexican music but also, to some extent,
music of the United StatesThe music of the United States reflects the country's multi-ethnic population through a diverse array of styles. Rock and roll, blues, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, pop, techno, and hip hop are among the country's most internationally-renowned genres. The United States has the world's largest...
.
Features
Distinguishable features of norteño include use of the button
accordionThe accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox...
and
bajo sextoA bajo sexto is a musical instrument with 12 strings in 6 double courses, used in Mexican music. It is used primarily in norteño music of northeastern Mexico and across the border in the music of south Texas known as "Tex-Mex," "conjunto," or "música mexicana-tejana"...
. The rhythm is usually steady and can be middle or fast tempo. Norteño is a style of Mexican country music and thus has a more rural sound. Some artists like Ramón Ayala may sound older and more traditional, while others such as Oro Norteño and Los Dueto Voces del Rancho have a rowdier style and stronger beat.
Genres similar to norteño include
bandaBanda is a brass-based form of traditional Mexican music. Bandas play a wide variety of songs, including rancheras, corridos, cumbias, baladas, and boleros...
and
duranguenseDuranguense is a genre of Mexican music. It is popular among the Mexican-American community in the United States. Duranguense is closely related to the Mexican styles of banda and norteño. The main instruments, which are held over from banda, are the saxophone, trombone, and bass drum...
. Banda and duranguense bands have almost entirely
brass instrumentA brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
s instead of accordions and guitars. However, banda and duranguense often play the same songs that norteño bands play, and they have the same steady beat of norteño. Lyrics and artist names are also similar.
Because many of these band names contain
Mexican state namesThe United Mexican States is a federation made up of thirty-one "free and sovereign states". These states constitute one federated State or Union. The federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over the Federal District, a territory which does not belong to any state but to all, as well as...
or a general geographical description (e.g., "de la Sierra"), norteño, banda, duranguense, and other similar genres can be classified into a category known as "regional Mexican music." Also, norteño is a border-type music, which is why many norteño groups choose to attach "del Norte" to their group names.
The sound of norteño
- See also: Regional styles of Mexican music
Regional styles of Mexican music vary greatly vary from state to state. Norteño, banda, duranguense, and other Mexican country music genres are often known as regional Mexican music because each state produces different musical sounds and lyrics....
Norteño has many different
regional stylesRegional styles of Mexican music vary greatly vary from state to state. Norteño, banda, duranguense, and other Mexican country music genres are often known as regional Mexican music because each state produces different musical sounds and lyrics....
. Norteño in
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
, for example, is very likely to be influenced by American music, while norteña from
TijuanaTijuana , is the largest city of the Mexican state of Baja California, situated on the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to its sister city of San Diego, California. Tijuana is the westernmost city in Mexico, however, the westernmost population center is located in Isla Guadalupe...
and
TamaulipasTamaulipas is one of the 31 states of Mexico and is located in the central-northeastern part of the Mexican federation. It borders the the U.S. state of Texas to the north, the Gulf of Mexico to the east, Veracruz to the south, San Luis Potosí to the southwest, and Nuevo León to the west...
may sometimes have influences from the Caribbean.
DurangoDurango is one of the constituent states of Mexico, with a population of 1,509,118. It has Mexico's second-lowest population density, after Baja California Sur...
and
SinaloaSinaloa is one of the 31 states of Mexico, located in the northwestern part of the country. The state is bordered to the north by Sonora and Chihuahua; to the south, by Nayarit; to the east by Durango, and to the west, across the Gulf of California, Baja California Sur. The state extends...
have also produced norteña bands, even though the two states are more closely associated with the musical style of
banda music Banda is a brass-based form of traditional Mexican music. Bandas play a wide variety of songs, including rancheras, corridos, cumbias, baladas, and boleros...
(or duranguense). Chihuahua and
ZacatecasZacatecas state of Mexico is located in the north-central region and it is bounded to the northwest by Durango, to the north by Coahuila, to the east by San Luis Potosí, to the south by Aguascalientes and Guanajuato and to the southwest by Jalisco and Nayarit...
norteño often incorporates the
saxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bored transposing musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in 1841...
into their bands, creating a saxophone-accordion duet. Additionally, norteña music from
GuanajuatoGuanajuato is a state in the central highlands of Mexico. It is named after its capital city, Guanajuato, which comes from the local indigenous language, meaning “Hill of Frogs.” Las Ranas is a nickname for people from this state as frogs are their state animal...
and
ChiapasChiapas is the southernmost state of Mexico, located towards the southeast of the country. Chiapas is bordered by the states of Tabasco to the north, Veracruz to the northwest, and Oaxaca to the west. To the east Chiapas borders Guatemala, and to the south the Pacific Ocean.Chiapas has an area of...
sometimes employs synthetic
marimbaThe marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. Keys or bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones...
s in their music instead of the usual accordion.
Each norteño band also has its own unique adorno (music which interrupts the lyrical lines in between). For example, one of
Los Tigres del NorteLos Tigres del Norte are a Grammy and Latin Grammy winning norteño-band ensemble, from Rosa Morada, Sinaloa, Mexico. The group was started by Jorge Hernández, his brothers, and his cousins. They began recording after moving to San José, California in the late 1960s, when all the members were still...
's adornos is a series of flutters, while
Los Rieleros del Norte'Los Rieleros Del Norte'is a Mexican norteño band. Founded in the southwestern U.S. town of Pecos, Texas 1979 by Manolo Morales, Los Rieleros del Norte is one of the oldest norteño bands still playing today...
's adornos are characterized by descending scales.
Sound samples
These sound samples illustrate the typical sound of norteño music.
Contemporary modern norteño:
- La Eché en un Carrito by La Raza Norteña (note the polka
The polka is a lively Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in the Czech lands and is still a common genre in Lithuanian, Czech, Croatian, Slovenian, Polish, German, Hungarian, Austrian,...
beat and accordionThe accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox...
)
- Chalino Sanchez Tu Nuevo Cariñito
- De Un Rancho A Otro by Dueto Voces del Rancho
Los Dueto Voces del Rancho is a Mexican norteño band. The norteño band consists of a duet that has Edgar Rodriguez and Mariano Fernandez as its members. The band plays many traditional rancheras, but with a uniquely contemporary style....
- Vuelve Gaviota by Dinastia Norteña
- Boquita Colorada by Oro Norteño
- En Las Cantinas by El Chapo de Sinaloa
Ernesto Pérez better know by his stage name El Chapo de Sinaloa , is a Mexican norteño/banda singer....
- Las Tres Ramitas by Los Dinámicos Del Norte
Musica Mexicana FM
Contemporary variants:
- Margarita, Margarita by Candido y su Huella Norteña (saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bored transposing musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in 1841...
-accordionThe accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox...
duet — Chihuahuan-style norteño)
- Te Quiero Mucho by Los Rieleros del Norte
'Los Rieleros Del Norte'is a Mexican norteño band. Founded in the southwestern U.S. town of Pecos, Texas 1979 by Manolo Morales, Los Rieleros del Norte is one of the oldest norteño bands still playing today...
(saxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bored transposing musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in 1841...
-accordionThe accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox...
duet)
- Reina del Sur by Los Tigres del Norte
Los Tigres del Norte are a Grammy and Latin Grammy winning norteño-band ensemble, from Rosa Morada, Sinaloa, Mexico. The group was started by Jorge Hernández, his brothers, and his cousins. They began recording after moving to San José, California in the late 1960s, when all the members were still...
(heavier guitar effect, different accordion playing technique)
- Detalles by Los Tigres del Norte
Traditional/oldie norteño:
- Por Una Mujer Casada by Los Tremendos Gavilanes
- Busca Otro Amor by Las Jilguerillas
- El Chubasco by Carlos y José
- Ojitos Negros by Cornelio Reyna
Cornelio Reyna was a Mexican norteño singer.Cornelio Reyna formed a partnership with the legendary Ramon Ayala to create the famous duet called Los Relampagos del Norte in 1963. The band stayed together for eight years and then in 1971, Reyna decided to pursue a solo career as a mariachi singer...
External links