I don’t have a better term for it than “Mexican Polka”. But I do get a large daily dosage of it from many of my neighbors.
The supreme sucktacity of this genre of - I hesitate to call it - music, is not the main point of my question, however. Even though it is completely and literally retarded.
I don’t speak Spanish, so can anyone tell me what the heck the lyrics are typically about? I mean, each song is virtually identical to the last. Are they usually love songs, or laments of some kind, or what? And I guess I’d like to know if it has a name too.
I wondered about this myself, as I lived down the street from a Tejano bar and used to drink beer and shoot pool there. The only music I ever heard was these polkas, but I never asked the guys what it was about.
I used to work with a guy who played guitar in a mariachi band. He called it ‘Mexican Oompah Music’ and hated it. (Nor do I. I don’t like mariachi music either.)
I have a discful of Mexican Polkas, and nothing gets a party started better. (I was working temp once, and as usual I brought along my CD wallets, and within the first couple days the office had ceded total control of the music system over to me. Not sure what direction to take once, I asked my boss, “Atmospheric guitar or Mexican polka?” and she said, “Mexican polka.” So I put it on. And then I hear from her office, “Oh my god you were serious! You really have a disc of Mexican polka!” It was quickly an office favorite.)
I’m just amused by the use of accordions in any musical genre, so I can take nortena music in very small doses. But to my unpracticed ear, too many subgenres of Latin music all sound alike to me. I prefer flamenco-style guitar and that happy, wacky mariachi stuff in general.
I will have mexican polka music seared into my brain for years to come. I’ve lived in a quiet neighborhood for years, and this state of affairs was shattered when the ENTIRE quadplex next door was taken over by a bunch of 20 year olds obsessed this this music They would blast it ALL hours, often passionately singing along at the top of their lungs. Everything they did apparently had to be done as loudly as possible, from visitors honking their horn incessantly at 4 a.m. trying to wake them up to go to work (apparently ignorant of the fact that they’re getting everyone elses attention too) to practically yelling at the top of their voice to somebody standing 2 freekin’ feet from them. Attempting to talk to any of them directly was a bust, as they feigned ignorance of english, they would just nod their heads and say ok…landlord apparently didn’t give a damn that the quality of life on this part of the block was going dramatically downhill because of the new source of major noise pollution. Cops (yes, I actually had to call the cops for noise complaints the first, second, third, etc. time in my life) but of course these partyboys stayed lucid enough to see the cops coming up the street and magically you can suddenly hear the crickets chirping as soon as the squad car came up, only to hear the music cranked up again as soon as the cops left. They finally all moved out on their own accord a few weeks ago returning this part of the block to normalcy. Sorry just had to rant, but this topic struck a nerve…
It’s normally called Banda and it’s probably the most popular music in Mexico. I once took a bus from Mexico City to Dallas, I had a radio with me and all the radio stations were either news or Banda, even in Texas. Here in Tijuana it’s the only thing most people ever listen to. Even in San Diego the occasional car will drive by blasting that infernal accordion,it’s so embarrasing that I feel like I got to apologize to other people on the street when it happens.
And to answer the OP: most are love songs and laments but some are about drug dealing and coyotes (immigrant smugglers), those are banned by alot of radio stations in Mexico.
I could have a lot wrong, so feel free to correct me.
I have always associated this music primarily with San Antonio, and have heard it ever since I got to Texas. San Antonio is adjacent to the Texas hill country, which was largely settled by Germans in the 19th century, and that’s the source. The Mexicans picked it up. Here in Texas, we just call it Tex-Mex.
The class of the field for this stuff generally considered to be accordianist Flaco Jimenez, although he has a fairly broad stylistic range. A lot of it (though I don’t think much of Jimenez’s music) mainly features accordians and synthesizers.
I was surprised to read that it’s so popular in Mexico; I thought it was mainly a US form.
Most of the Mexican Americans I know consider it to be hick music, and wouldn’t listen to it if you paid them. But the guys out there doing the cheap manual labor that keeps Texas affordable seem to love it.