ThreeTuneTuesday - Corridos Mexicanos: News Stories in Verse Form

In today's post for the #ThreeTuneTuesday challenge I would like to present a musical genre that is a combination of lyrical and musical entertainment with information on current or historical events. What I mean are obviously Corridos, which in Mexico have an important tradition, and even today enjoy a huge popularity.

Where to Get the News From

People have always been interested in what's going on outside of the circle of their limited perception. But this need was not always met easily, without the refined technology for audiovisual transmission. Even print media required basic literacy to be useful, so there had to be other ways to keep people up to date on current events. Music was ideally suited to fill this need.

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The tradition for this goes back to medieval times (at least), where traveling poets and musicians would present the news from faraway lands at the court of the local lord, or at the market square to the general public. What were known as bards, troubadours, or Minensänger evolved way into the 20th century, particularly in places like Mexico, where the limited technology and literacy favored the stories presented by traveling musicians. This artistic form became known as the Corrido.

Tales of the Revolution

The musical style is not even so much a defining criteria in the case of the corrido. It is typically traditional rural Mexican music with similarities to Mariachi, Ranchera, Norteña, many of which overlap significantly anyway. What is more important, is how the song is opened with a greeting and an announcement of a particular story. After the events are presented, there may be a conclusion or a moral, before the musician bids farewell to the audience.

The story itself may have to do with romantic love, death and suffering, the heroic deeds of someone fighting against injustice, and other topics favored by the audience. They will ultimately carry a strong angle, even though they are supposedly based on real life events, but that is a given thing even for supposedly impartial news. The time period that offered ample material fort these crowd-pleasing stories was the Mexican revolution, with numerous battles claiming to be for social justice. Up to this day they have remained popular among the Mexican audience, even though the news stories of their times have turned into historical accounts by now.

In this first example of a famous corrido Antonio Aguilar relates the story of Emiliano Zapata, one of the most notable protagonists of the revolution. He was generally well beloved among the common folks, as he specifically rose up and fought for the rights of peasants to own the land they worked on. The original film clips from those times, and the captioned lyrics offer a great visual backup to the music.

In this second corrido, presented by Vicente Fernandez the topic is the other beloved caudillo of the Mexican revolution, Pancho Villa. Or to be more exact, the song is about his favorite horse. The revolutionary named the animal Siete Leguas after it helped him escape over a distance of seven leagues, or roughly 33 kms. Once again, in this video you can read the text along while listening.

Modern Forms of Corridos

In our very modern 21st century, with all types of media right at our fingertips, one would think that corridos have become a thing of the past, but quite the opposite is true: This ancient art form has reached new heights of popularity, particularly in the subgenre that became known Narco(co)rridos. As the name suggests, the lyrical themes of these corridos have to do with the Mexican cartels of organized crime, such as the following song performed by Ariel Camacho y Los Plebes del Rancho about the famous Chapo Guzmán.

So why would you need to write a song about such a famous drug-lord, who had entire TV-series made about him? The simple answer is, that because it's cool! The musical style has been there, and young people who grew up with it are keen on hearing it, especially when it's about a figure they look up to with a mix of admiration and fear. And honestly, among the options for cartel bosses, El Chapo is probably the closest figure to a revolutionary leader.

Take the #TTT Challenge!

If you like Mexican music, or are interested in the stories related by the corridos, I hope these three examples are only the beginning of a long and informative search. Also, I urge you to check out the #ThreeTuneTuesday challenge brought to us by @ablaze . If you are interested in other music-related things I have posted, take a look at my Monday Music post collection.