Latin Music Talk

The massive influence of ska and reggae coming out of Jamaica in the 60s and 70s didn’t just go north or across the pond to England. It went south into Mexico and into all parts of South America.

Also, while ska had its “waves” in the English speaking world, in Latin America it never lost popularity, evolving and mixing with many genres of music, not only punk. Many Latin ska bands have had steady followings since the 80s or 90s and still fill stadiums today.

These groups could be called ska-fusion, as they rightly are sometimes in Latin America, where calling them “Latin ska” is like calling football “American football.” These groups mix ska with reggae, funk, rock, punk and Latin rhythms like cumbia.

While there are good ska bands all over Latin America, especially Argentina, because I live in Mexico I have to give a shout-out to the many fine Mexican groups first.

Panteon Rococo is a great example of what has gone right with Latin ska. The nine-piece (as of now) band puts on a long, rocking live show, and their big anthems are upbeat crowd-pleasing sing-alongs.

Panteon Rococo released a fine new album in 2010, Ejercito de Paz (Army of Peace). Funkier and more refined than straight-up ska, the songs have hooky horn melodies, political themes, and a deep pocket, like in the songs “Democracia Fecal” and “Payaso de Mentiras.”

Though Panteon Rococo leads the pack, there are many more innovative ska/rock/funk bands in Mexico, like Maldita Vecindad, Salon Victoria, Mama Pulpa, and Maskateska,. Do some YouTube searches, download a few albums, or better yet, come down to Mexico to see this excellent live music for yourself.

Notreno music, also known as conjuno, is one of the most popular kinds of homegrown Mexican music. Accordion and choppy upstroke guitars give norteno its polka-like sound; indeed, the origins of the music are from German and other European immigrants who came to Mexico in the late 19^th century.

Los Tigres del Norte have been around since the late sixties. They scored their first big hit with "Contrabando y Traición" ("Contraband and Betrayal") in 1974, a story of drug running and adventure.

Rather than try to summarize their long history, I will introduce a few of their most famous songs. These were all recorded during their 2011 Unplugged concert, for which they brought out a lot of guests, mostly Latin stars like Juanes from Colombia. In this song their guest is well known to American audiences:

If Zach de la Rocha guests on a song, then you can guess that it is political. “Somos mas Americanos” means “We are More American” and has some great lines like, “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.” If you like it then I suggest looking up and translating the lyrics online.

“Golpes en el Corazon” was the big hit from the Unplugged Album. The title translates as “Punches to the Heart” and has unrequited love song lyrics and a catchy melody:

The grand finale of the Unplugged show, “America” is once again about the continent, not the country, but it is less political and more celebratory than the unapologetic in-your-face politics of “Somos mas Americanos.” This version features the front man from Calle 13 who contributes a new verse to the song:

The bouncy, polka-like music you hear on the Mexican radio station in your town could be one of several styles: nortena, banda, conjunto, or something similar. These are superbly popular styles in Mexico, especially the in north. They are all a bit like country music, not stylistically, but in how they are appreciated. It’s the music of the people, town fair music. Played in late night clubs where people wear jeans and big hats and drink a lot of brandy. And a lot of hip lovers of eclectic music shun it like the plague.

I like it. Do you? If so, have you ever thought about what it would sound like if you mixed this stuff with electronic music?

Well, luckily for all of us who love unconventional music, the Nortec Collective has already thought of that. Nortec is a group of DJs from Northern Mexico who create this mad brew: a mix Nortena and club music, a very unlikely blend.

The result is at once original and non-threatening. By non-threatening I mean that you can dance and get down to it at your party. Nortec brings out full horn sections live. On their many recordings – collaborations between the group of DJs who make up the collective, their wide pallet of electro sounds includes all the horns, tuba bass, and funky accordion of the more prosaic music that inspires them - the sounds of a typical Mexican banda group. This isn’t pop music, but it’s catchy and danceable as hell.

One of my favorite numbers is called “Llatera” – tire shop – and sure enough they mix in lots of industrial noises – beeps, whistles, and clanging metal.

Another cool one is “Nicole Ya No Baila Aqui” – Nicole doesn’t dance here anymore. For its recording the DJ brought his portable gear into a strip club. The song tells a story, but with no words. It’s a moving story too.

Check out Nortec – even if you think you dislike the two kinds of music they use, you may still like the group.

There are so many reasons to dislike Jennifer Lopez, and now I’ll give you another. “Get on the Floor” isn’t just a sample, it is a total rip off.

Now, I’m not sure it’s a rip off in the illegal sense. I’m sure she (or her string-pullers) got the proper permission and paid off the right people.

What I mean is that she took a super catchy melody and chopped out one tiny piece of it. She looped that little melody and lost much of the substance of the original song. So you can’t call it a cover, or even really a sample – it’s just a straight up rip off.

What may be worse, she abandoned the original, interesting lyrics in Spanish and Portuguese and sang (I doubt she wrote it herself) some trivial garbage about dancing in a club.

Anyway, here is the history of the song. With this history you travel throughout Latin America, starting in Bolivia. A pan-flute band that plays native Andean mountain music called Kjarkas wrote “Llorando Se Fue” - which means, “She goes away crying.” Listen to it here:

A few years and many cover versions later, Brazilian Marcia Ferreira gave it a cumbia-like dance beat and altered lyrics in Portuguese, calling it "Chorando Se Foi." I don’t know how much impact her version had outside of Brazil, but when it was covered by a Brazilian singer with French group Kaoma and renamed “Lambada” in 1989, it became a massive worldwide hit.

In 2010 Don Omar called it “Taboo” and gave it a reggaeton-like beat, modernizing the sound and singing half of it in Spanish, thereby reintroducing “Llorando Se Fue” to the world of Latin pop. Then J-Lo destroyed it, and there you have it – the evolution of an international pop song melody.