Regional Mexican music, an umbrella term that encompasses mariachi, banda, corridos, norteña, sierreño and other genres, has become a global phenomenon, topping music charts and reaching new audiences as it crosses more and more borders. .
Although it has had a presence in the United States for decades, with stars like the late Selena Quintanilla who fused Tejano music with pop, disco and R&B, something extraordinary happened in the last year.
The single “She dances alone” by Eslabón Armado and Peso Pluma surpassed one billion views on Spotify in December 2023, becoming the first regional Mexican music hit among the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 chart that includes music by all genres, reaching number 4. Days later, Bad Bunny's collaboration with Grupo Frontera “Un x100to” reached number 5.
According to Luminate's year-end report for 2023, four of the six Latin artists who reached 1 billion streaming views in the United States were Mexican or of Mexican origin: Peso Pluma, Eslabón Armado, Junior H and Fuerza Regida . They were also among the 125 most listened to artists. Overall, regional Mexican music grew 60% in the United States, representing 21.9 billion on-demand audio streams.
How it happened? The Associated Press reached out to musicians, producers and industry experts to get a sense of how regional Mexican music is evolving ahead of the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 4.
MUSIC THAT BREAKS OUT WITH STRENGTH
Leila Cobo, Billboard's director of Latin and Spanish content, told the AP that she believed Mexican music was always going to be very popular in the United States, given its large Mexican-American population.
“But I never in a million years thought it was going to become so global,” he said.
For Cobo, one of the factors contributing to the international reach of regional Mexican music is streaming, which democratized listening habits and allowed listeners who would not otherwise encounter this music to fall in love with it.
On Spotify alone, Mexican music grew 400% worldwide in the last five years, according to Uriel Waizel, editorial leader at Spotify Mexico. And on YouTube, Peso Pluma surpassed Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny to become the most listened to artist of 2023 on the platform.
Además del streaming, Cobo apunta a una gran población mexico-estadounidense en Estados Unidos interesada en explorar la música de sus antepasados, y a una nueva generación de músicos que abrazan la música regional, pero la mezclan con rap, reggaetón e instrumentación electrónica, vigorizándola en el proceso.
“It went from being a bit old-fashioned music,” says Cobo. “Now I see a movement. And I think that's exciting."
Waizel says that while Mexican music is centuries old, “current Mexican music is breaking it because it is the music that young people listen to.”
Spotify confirmed that last month, 56% of listeners of Latin American artists were under 30 years old. In Mexico, the figure increases to 60% of listeners.
“Before, parents taught regional music to their children, but now young people are the ones teaching parents music,” said DannyLux, 19 years old and a performer of sad sierreño, a new subgenre that emerged about five years ago. . “Regional music is reaching the heights of reggaeton, that was not seen before.”
