Narcocorrido, a distinctive style of music, sounds completely unassuming with its accordions, guitars and folksy sound. Literally translated as drug ballads, the norteña-inspired songs weave tales celebrating the exploits of drug dealers, murderers and smugglers as if they were heroic outlaws.
The drug ballads continue to grow in popularity with young Latino Americans. It is a booming industry that is selling out shows all across America. Radio stations are becoming more open to giving it airplay. YouTube videos garner millions of hits. It has gotten more than the attention of impressionable young Latino Americans.
“Narco Cultura” is a recently released documentary directed by Israeli photojournalist Shaul Schwarz, which observes the violence of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and its effect on the music that glamorizes murder and mayhem. He follows Richi Soto, a Juárez crime scene investigator who has to do his job anonymously, fearing retaliation from cartels, and Edgar Quintero, a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter who believes narcocorrido will be the next hip-hop.
Much like rock ‘n’ roll and rap before it, the sensational lyrics and themes threaten to intensify the xenophobia for Mexicans on either side of the border.
Rap culture has had its share of socially conscious artists like Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy and even Tupac Shakur. It went through its own transformation into promotion of drug and alcohol use, violence and money, all of which is familiar to American urban youth today.
Narcocorrido has gone through its own metamorphosis from music about bootleggers defying gringo agents into the banal depiction of a life of violence in desiccated cities like Juárez. Unlike rap culture, narcocorrido has never pretended to be anything beyond what it is. There are few socially or politically relevant messages hidden between the lines, if any.
Bands such as Edgar Quintero’s Los Buknas de Culiacan cheerfully sing to sold-out crowds, “We’re bloodthirsty, crazy, and we like to kill!” They perform with bazookas and AK-47s strapped to their backs.
It sounds ridiculous, but is narcocorrido really any worse than rap songs about murder? Rap has been such an integral part of American popular culture that we forget that artists like 2 Live Crew were lambasted for their explicitly obscene lyrics in their most successful album, “As Nasty As They Wanna Be.” 2 Live Crew’s lyrics back in 1989 pale in comparison to what is now considered mainstream radio-approved music.
Luther Campbell told the Los Angeles Times back in 1990 that he was “just a hard-working guy marketing a new product.”
He may not be talking about decapitation or kidnappings, but Quintero justifies his craft with a similar perspective: “It’s music that fills clubs and concert halls and so I give them what they like. We’re reporters — we’re telling you the news.”
Despite the devolved material, narcocorrido is entertaining to its audience. While it might be convenient for observers to blame narcocorrido for the drug wars raging in cities like Ciudad Juárez, it remains a baseless judgment.
Narcocorrido will continue to grow in popularity, and there’s no reason to believe that it is a recruitment tool, turning listeners into bazooka-toting members of bloodthirsty drug cartels. It is just another entertaining genre of music.
Reach the columnist at michael.jerome.martin@asu.edu.
