{"id":2158,"date":"2025-04-17T04:18:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T04:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/?p=2158"},"modified":"2025-04-17T05:25:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T05:25:05","slug":"mexican-music-narcocorridos-and-freedom-of-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/17\/mexican-music-narcocorridos-and-freedom-of-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mexican Music Market, Narcocorridos and Freedom of Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mexico is a musically-oriented country and recently became the 10th-largest music market in the world<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are various genres of Mexican music, plus Mexico is a big market for music from other Spanish-speaking countries and from English-speaking countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like other areas of Mexican society, the music business is not untouched by the drug cartels. Some Mexican performers are linked to specific drug cartels and there is a form of song called a narcocorrido. A corrido<\/a> is a type of traditional music telling a story. Thus a narcocorrido tells a story about the narco world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 29, the group called Los Alegres del Barranco<\/em> held a concert in which the face of Nemesio Ruben \u201cEl Mencho\u201d Oseguera, leader of the C\u00e1rtel de Jalisco Nueva Generaci\u00f3n<\/em>, was projected on the screen, and applauded by the audience. This had repercussions north of the border.
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Los Alegres del Barranco<\/em>. Source: Mexico Daily Post<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As reported by the Mexico Daily Post<\/a>, “U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who was U.S. ambassador to Mexico during the first Trump administration, said late Tuesday [April 1] on X that the work and tourism visas of members of Los Alegres del Barranco were revoked….‘ <\/strong>I\u2019m a firm believer in freedom of expression, but that doesn\u2019t mean that expression should be free of consequences,’ Landau wrote on X. ‘The last thing we need is a welcome mat for people who extol criminals and terrorists.’ \u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revocation of visas is a real punishment – these groups have large audiences in the United States. In fact, Los Alegres del Barranco<\/em> had a U.S. concert tour scheduled to begin in Tulsa, Oklahoma on April 4th. So that was cancelled<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Billboard<\/a>, “The band\u00a0apologized<\/a>\u00a0on April 2, saying that it ‘was never our intention to create controversy, much less cause offense.’ \u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 9th, several municipalities in the central state of Mexico banned performances of songs glorifying violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 11th, singer Luis R. Conriquez had a concert in Texcoco, State of Mexico. This singer is known for narco-related music, in fact his (U.S.-based) record label is called “Kartel Music”.
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Luis R. Conriquez, 2024, California. Source: Billboard<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At this concert though, the singer announced he wasn’t going to sing any narcocorridos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the fans weren’t having it. They booed, shouted, threw drinks and attacked the stage, destroying the band’s equipment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This illustrates one of the many problems posed by the cartels – their popular support among some sectors of Mexican society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As described by the Blog del Narco<\/a><\/em> (my translation), “A night that promised to be a musical celebration…culminated in an unexpected and violent episode. The attendees of the concert of the famous Mexican singer Luis R. Conriquez reacted with fury and destroyed the stage setup after the artist announced his decision not to sing narcocorridos during his show. A sector of the public…demanded that he sing the narcocorridoes, the singer refused and they began to destroy everything. The frustration of the public was exhibited in such a blatant manner that it was recorded in multiple videos shared on social media by the attendees themselves.” <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chaos at the Concert. Source: Reforma<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the words of Auden Cabello<\/a> “A Mexican singer renowned for portraying and romanticizing organized crime declined to perform ‘narco-corridos.’ The audience responded with hostility, vandalizing the equipment of the bands. This incident serves as a stark indication of the profound influence of narco-culture on Mexican society.<\/strong>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what’s the solution? Is it to ban certain types of music or performances ? Or not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, in her April 16th press conference<\/a>, said she wasn’t in favor of banning such performances, and that “education and awareness are better approaches<\/strong>“. On the other hand she said “Of course, there are extremes that cross into criminal territory, right? Like what happened at an event where a video of a drug trafficker was shown as if it were something positive. Everything has its pros and cons.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the Alegres del Barranco<\/em>, the group that had the narco baron’s face on their screen and got their visas revoked, that incident won them much publicity.

On April 9th, Billboard reported<\/a> that “Los Alegres Del Barranco’s ‘El Del Palenque’ debuts at No. 1 on\u00a0Billboard<\/em>\u2019s LyricFind Global chart dated April 12 following interest in the 2021 song amid the Mexican band\u2019s controversy over a concert during which it showed images of a cartel leader while performing the tune. The LyricFind Global and\u00a0LyricFind U.S.<\/a>\u00a0charts rank the fastest momentum-gaining tracks in lyric-search queries and usages globally and in the U.S., respectively, provided by LyricFind. The Global chart includes queries from all countries, including the U.S.\u00a0 The company is the world\u2019s leader in licensed lyrics, with data provided by more than 5,000 publishers and utilized by more than 100 services, including Amazon, Pandora, Deezer, Microsoft, SoundHound and iHeartRadio. \u201cEl Del Palenque\u201d tops the LyricFind Global survey after interest in the song\u2019s lyrics jumped 232% globally following the concert and ensuing news coverage, according to LyricFind.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mexico is a musically-oriented country and recently became the 10th-largest music market in the world. There are various genres of Mexican music, plus Mexico is a big market for music from other Spanish-speaking countries and from English-speaking countries. Like other … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,12],"tags":[481,253,27,116,151,67,480,477,482,479,478,16],"class_list":["post-2158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-culture","tag-christopher-landau","tag-cjng-cartel-jalisco-nueva-generacion","tag-claudia-sheinbaum","tag-corridos","tag-drug-cartels","tag-jalisco","tag-los-alegres-del-barranco","tag-luis-r-conriquez","tag-music","tag-state-of-mexico","tag-texcoco","tag-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2158"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2182,"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions\/2182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}