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Regional Mexican (Muscia Grupera) in Latin America
- Thread starter e-dawg
- Start date
e-dawg said:
The reach of Mexican music is quite extensive.
In the 60's I had a station in Quito, Ecuador, that played 75% Ecuadorian music (some in Kichua) and 25% rancheras.
In Guatemala, Honduaras and El Salvador, leading stations play contemporary regional Mexican (grupera without the ranchera) and traditional stations may include rancheras in the mix.
One of the reasons, historically, is the wide influence of Mexican movies from the 30's onward. At a time when large percentages of the population did not read, subtitled Hollywood movies were not an option for much of the population... but Pedro Infante movies were... followed by all those Antonio Aguilar and friends movies. Musically, much of Central America is a Mexican colony.
(The only place the music is called "regional Mexican" is in the US)
The cumbia, which is what grupera is based on, is very popular throughout latin America, but it does change regionally. There are bands from central America that are quite popular in Mexico and their version of the cumbia fits in very nicely with what airs on Mexican radio. Even Colombia has the Sonoras which are cumbia bands. The one thing that unites all the variations is the 3 note base line and beat. I'm a huge fan myself and can listen to it for hours.
mimo said:
"Grupera" in Mexico refers to norteña, banda, duragüense and related music forms. For example, La Z and Ke Buena in Mexico City are "grupera" but play all but never any cumbias.
Historically, in the 70's and 80's, "grupera" referred to music by groups like the Bukis, Los Babys, Los Muecas, Yndio y su Grupo, etc. Some of the songs had a cumbia rhythm, but most were a fusion of traditional Mexican music with pop.
Over time, "grupera" came to define Mexican music mostly by bands that was not ranchera. There was some cumbia influence, such as in the cumbia beat norteñas more prevalent in the 70's than today.
In Mexico, that music is called "sonidera" and in Argentina "bailanta". In some places, like the Greater Antilles, it has zero appeal and is essentially never, ever played on the radio... now or in the past.
Off hand, except for the rip-off Sonora Dinamita from El Salvador, I can't think of any Central American cumbia group that is or was popular across Mexico. Or in the US for that matter.
Why do you say "even"? The cumbia is from the northern coast of Colombia, from Montería to Maicao, and the marshlands inland... it shares some of the regional heritage of the Vallenato, as both are a mix of African music with indigenous interpretations and European instruments.
The cumbia has a bunch of variations in Colombia, including the gaita, the porro, etc.
DavidEduardo said:
David, that's not true. I've heard Los Angeles de Charly, Los Socios del Ritmo and Celso Piña on BOTH of those stations. Not long ago, La Z also had at times one salsa piece mixed in every other hour. While cumbia is not the main focus for the formatics (especially on Ke Buena), it is not omitted either.
Chompiras said:
The salsa disappeared from the GRC station many years ago. Salsa is to grupero listeners like rat poison is to rats.
And I said "all but never" because there is an occasional cumbia grupera on the grupera stations in Mexico City, but they are a small minority of the songs played.
Using La Zeta as the example, there was an average of two total spins a day for cumbias in the last 7 days, and there were just three titles played with 4 spins each... or 6 spins out of about 1800 total weekly spins for all songs. There are no cumbias in the currents and recurrents.
Both stations may play a cumbia if it is a huge hit. But there has not been a huge cumbia hit for years.
DavidEduardo said:
I used to listen to a lot of Mexican radio in the 90's through to about 2001. The stations I listened to played everything from Norten~a to banda to the Grupos that were cumbia based, and some even threw in the occasional ranchera. The variety was a lot of fun to someone who was very used to the focused formats of English language radio. I know about Vallenato as well. I've always told people that it did originate in Colombia, but most people in the U.S. will think of the cumbia as Mexican, and that was why I used "even".
As far as other bands, I have always been told that Los Angeles Azules were not Mexican, but from El Salvador. There are other bands who do sound similar to them from central Amercia who were immensely popular for a while. Who could ever forget such great songs as "Como Me Voy Olvidar" and Nin~a Mujer". I still seek out the videos on you tube years later. Bands like Grupo Bryndis, Los Bukis (including Marco Antonio Solis' solo material) and Los Temerarios had a strong cumbia influence. Banda groups like Banda Machos also had the influence as well and you can even hear it in Norten~a bands like Los Tigres Del Norte or Los Tiranos Del Norte (example their version of No Volvere)
mimo said:
The Angeles Azules are from Iztalpalapa, a "colonia" in Mexico City. You may be thinking of Los Silver Stars, a Salvadoran cumbia / tropical band that imitates the Colombian sonora style.
Maybe in Central America... Grupo Rana from Guatemala, Banda Blanca from Honduras, etc. But of no significance in the US Hispanic market.
But that was in the 70's and 80's... that sound is mostly gone, save for a few songs that play on oldies stations like Juan and José and Recuerdo.
At one point, in the mid to late 60's and during the 70's Mexico City had 3 all cumbia stations like Radio Onda 1530, Radio AI Canal Tropical 1320 and RH 1500. They are long gone and have not been replaced.
David posted, "The salsa disappeared from the GRC station many years ago. Salsa is to grupero listeners like rat poison is to rats."
Yeah right, the time is 3:16 central, listening to KeBuena's internet feed from Mexico City. (http://www.kebuena.com.mx/player/)
I've heard so far TWO salsa songs back-to-back.
Also, Señor David seems to look down on cumbia, yet El Mandril is constantly playing "Soy Maraquero" by GRUPO KUAL, and often features DJ mixes of cumbia inside of the morning show. He's number one in the ratings! La Raza also plays significant cumbia tracks during their "Movidas al Mediodia" segment.
Yeah right, the time is 3:16 central, listening to KeBuena's internet feed from Mexico City. (http://www.kebuena.com.mx/player/)
I've heard so far TWO salsa songs back-to-back.
Also, Señor David seems to look down on cumbia, yet El Mandril is constantly playing "Soy Maraquero" by GRUPO KUAL, and often features DJ mixes of cumbia inside of the morning show. He's number one in the ratings! La Raza also plays significant cumbia tracks during their "Movidas al Mediodia" segment.
Ke Buena is not the GRC station, which used to feature several hard-core salsa tunes an hour. Ke Buena does not play any hard core salsa, and has 5 or 6 "salsa monga" (limp salsa) songs in rotation, and only one, a crossover song, in any kind of current / recurrent rotation. The rest are a few classic Celia-Jerry-Victor Manuelle songs that seem strange... but Mexico City is strange compared to the rest of Mexico.
The GRC station, La Zeta, has no salsa in current or recurrent (which make up 60% of all spins) although there are several bachatas, indicating the ability of regional Mexican to absorb foreign elements, just as it did with the cumbia 30 or 40 years ago (Rigo Tovar anyone¡)
In most of Mexico salsa is not heard. So much so that when doing concerts in LA up to a few years back, in cases where we were required by the city or the police to vacate prior to sundown, we would put a salsa band on a half hour before the deadline. By sunset, the park or venue would be empty.
Mandríl is #1 for his content, not the songs he plays. In any case, cumbia grupera is very much a part of regional Mexican music, back to the 70's when we started seeing a lot of cumbia norteña; by the 90's bandas had adopted the rhythm for some songs and the mix-sonidero movement further enhanced the popularity of the genre.
Cumbia used to be a format of its own, particularly in the 60's and 70's. Then, for a while, the sonidero movement created some very cumbiambera stations in the late 90's and early 2000's, but they faded or became blends.
But cumbia is definitely a flavor element in regional stations. It's also unrelated (unless you go back 200 to 300 years) to salsa.
Considering I owned an all-cumbia station, Canal Tropical, in 1966 and was even in attendance at the first Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata, I can hardly be considered as one who looks down on the cumbia and its related forms.
And there is probably no music I like better than salsa... coming from my experience in putting on the air the first all-salsa FM anywhere nearly 35 years ago.
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