Narcocorridos and the Music of Mayhem in Mexico Amplify
go to original January 12, 2016

Narco Cultura Official Trailer (FilmFestivalVideos)

America’s fixation with the mafia is waning, but there’s a huge appetite for television and film about the cartels operating in Mexico. In the USA, real-life documentaries like Nat Geo’s Drugs Inc. or Netflix’s excellent series Narcos are mostly being marketed to English-speaking audiences, but a growing genre of Spanish language music dedicated to the exploits and adventures of drug lords is getting increased attention from the music world.

The arrest of kingpin Chapo Guzman Friday in a small Sinaloa beach town is sure to spark a new wave of Narcocorridos — Mexican drug ballads about the battles and exploits of the country’s major narcos. After his escape from a Mexican prison in July, there were over 12,000 narcocorridos written and uploaded to YouTube dedicated to Chapo.

...“The corridos are attempts by Mexican society to come to terms with the world around them, and drug violence is a big part of that world,” Mexico’s former foreign secretary Jorge Castañeda told the New York Times. “You cannot blame narcocorridos for drug violence. Drug violence is to blame for narcocorridos.”

For many in Mexico, narcocorridos have less to do with one affinity for drug lords and more to do with one socioeconomic position in life. After all, Guzman was born into extreme poverty and rose to be one of the wealthiest men in Mexico through the sale of drugs.

“Narcocorridos do a lot more than just talk about who fought who and who controls what drug route,” explained Jasmine Garsd in a piece for NPR. “They provide the vicarious pleasure of listening to the exploits of poor men made rich in a country where social mobility is difficult, poverty is crippling and government corruption is rampant. In that way, they might not be that different from telenovelas: escapist entertainment that’s not always wholesome, and that can celebrate toxic behavior.”

Read the rest at Amplify

El Komander - El Regreso de el Chapo (TwiinsCuliacanTv)

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