LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Mexican regional music \u2014 a catchall term that encompasses mariachi, banda, corridos, norte\u00f1o, sierre\u00f1o and other genres \u2014 has proved to be anything but regional, playing a key role in the continued dominance of Latin music.<\/p>\n
But even as the genre\u2019s stars top the charts and headline top-earning concerts, its recent mainstream globalization has notably left out women\u2019s voices.<\/p>\n
The issue isn\u2019t new, women have long fought for representation in genres like hip-hop and country, and while some styles have made strides toward gender parity, Mexican regional music is among those that have lagged.<\/p>\n
Now, women are carving their own space, often singing lyrics that differ from their male counterparts, tailored around love, heartbreak and the woman\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this particular genre, women are still maybe feeling their way,\u201d said Leila Cobo, Billboard\u2019s chief content officer for Latin music coverage. \u201cI think there\u2019s a big opportunity for someone to kind of seize that spot, explore and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Male artists like Peso Pluma and Natanael Cano spearheaded the genre\u2019s recent wave, which first bubbled up in late 2023, and saw corridos tumbados, a subgenre of Mexican regional music, skyrocket.<\/p>\n
This modern take infuses the traditional musical style with hip-hop and trap elements, with lyrics that explore the complex and ever-evolving experience of Mexican Americans on both sides of the border \u2014 and now more women are embracing it.<\/p>\n
Mexican American singer Becky G said her start in the genre years ago \u201ccame naturally and it never felt like riding a wave,\u201d adding that \u201cIt almost felt like we were a part of making it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spanish-born singer Belinda, who found early success in Spanish pop after starting as a child actor, noticed how few women were experimenting with corridos.<\/p>\n
She dove into the genre, which is at the core of her most recent album, \u201cInd\u00f3mita,\u201d released in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it was important to just open the door for other girls to just take risks,\u201d Belinda said.<\/p>\n
Women have long fought to break down male-dominated spaces in Mexican music.<\/p>\n
Texas-born Selena Quintanilla took the reins of Tejano music and helped catapult the genre into the mainstream market before her death in 1995.<\/p>\n
Jenni Rivera, known as \u201cThe First Lady of Corrido\u201d before her death in 2012, was famous for taking the mic in a space that was mostly occupied by men by singing about women\u2019s role in marriage, infidelity and motherhood.<\/p>\n
Yet, the newly-minted corridos tumbados subgenre has especially struggled.<\/p>\n
The songs often tell stories of drugs, cartel violence and luxurious lifestyles entrenched in \u201cmacho\u201d culture, which is difficult to change, Cobo said.<\/p>\n
The music\u2019s gendered landscape reflects the sexism and \u201cmacho\u201d culture that permeates Mexican society, said Omar Cerrillo, a professor of sociology and arts at Mexico\u2019s Tecnol\u00f3gico de Monterrey.<\/p>\n
For centuries, music was male-dominated, Cerrillo said, noting that \u201cfrom the very beginning in the late 19th century till now, there was a strong macho discourse in many songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the tide has significantly shifted since then and women have cemented their role in the genre, he believes there\u2019s still much work to do to rid the genre of its patriarchal roots.<\/p>\n
Majo Aguilar found success in Mexico\u2019s entertainment scene following the footsteps of her grandparents, legendary musicians and actors Antonio Aguilar and Flor Silvestre.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s focused on challenging \u201cthis idea that it\u2019s going to be more difficult because you\u2019re a woman,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Becky G, who got her start in pop and rap before switching to reggaeton and now Mexican regional, said artists like Rivera and Quintanilla are proof that change is possible in the corrido scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very proud to stand on the shoulders of so many incredibly talented, badass women,\u201d Becky G said. \u201cThere\u2019s so many pioneers in these spaces that, if they did it, what makes us the exception?\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the genre can be discouraging and difficult to navigate for female artists like Eydrey, an up-and-coming El Paso-based musician.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little nagging voice that just doesn\u2019t go away,\u201d Eydrey said. \u201cYou can\u2019t just help but think, if I were a man, could I be further in my career?\u201d<\/p>\n
The genre\u2019s rapid success is largely tied to the live instrumentation behind the songs \u2014 a unique aspect of the style that \u201creally stuck with people,\u201d according to Billboard\u2019s Cobo.<\/p>\n
She noted that women who experiment within the style are developing their own unique lyrical forms.<\/p>\n
Belinda\u2019s music blends the corrido style with a more feminine and romantic sound, resulting in the newly coined genre \u201ccorridos coquette.\u201d<\/p>\n
The music has found success, and she\u2019s collaborated with popular corrido artists like Natanael Cano and Tito Double P.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounds like me,\u201d said Belinda. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how different it is or if it\u2019s something that\u2019s never been done before. You have to go with what you feel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eydrey has long been a fan of Mexican regional and corridos tumbados, but when she listened to the music, a single question always came to mind: What would the woman have to say?<\/p>\n
Most popular corridos are sung by men and focus on relationship betrayal or heartbreak caused by a woman.<\/p>\n
The thought inspired a popular series on Eydrey\u2019s TikTok account, where she writes and sings her own version of corridos, but from a woman\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n
In the song \u201cT\u00da NAME,\u201d by Fuerza Regida, for instance, a man boasts about dating multiple women to avenge an ex-girlfriend that left him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went shopping,\u201d he sings, \u201cand I bought her everything I would never buy you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eydrey\u2019s version turns the song into a softer ballad from the perspective of a woman who had long felt neglected in the relationship before finally leaving.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho even needs luxury items?\u201d she sings while strumming her guitar. \u201cWhat mattered to me was that you loved me, and that promise was never kept.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hearing all of these things that they were saying about their past partner, who was a woman, and I would be like, did she really do all that? Did she? And if she did, well then what would be her side of the story?\u201d Eydrey said. \u201cThat\u2019s when I put pen to paper and was like, if I were her, what would I like to say in that song?\u201d<\/p>\n
Becky G grew up singing corridos and mariachi music at family parties and was already a successful mainstream artist in pop and reggaeton before diving into Mexican regional professionally.<\/p>\n
Still, she faced obstacles and hesitation as she ventured into the genre.<\/p>\n
Many people viewed \u201cEsquinas,\u201d Becky G\u2019s first complete regional album released in 2023, as a passion project, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started, there wasn\u2019t really proof that it was music that was globally being recognized or celebrated yet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Yet, she persisted, and her latest album, \u201cEncuentros,\u201d released last year, also centers on the Mexican regional sound. Both projects, she said, serve as love letters to the genre of her childhood and \u201cstruck an artery.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt bled so much realness, so much rawness and again that was always there,\u201d Becky G said. \u201cMaybe that wasn\u2019t the person people saw in front of the camera necessarily, but it was in my hustle, it was in my drive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Mexican regional music \u2014 a catchall term that encompasses mariachi, banda, corridos, norte\u00f1o, sierre\u00f1o…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[16321,138,140,139,28277],"class_list":["post-49614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-ap","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-local_features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}