KNTE is mostly Banda, correct?
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Is La Mejor Still on?
- Thread starter Mrtejano
- Start date
Incorrect, it’s mostly Mariachi
It's mostly ranchera, including mariachi and a bit of nortena.
No wonder no one knows what "Regional Mexican" means - it's like saying Regional Rap, Regional Blues, or Regional Oldies = Equally meaningless.
When you consider that the term was invented by rack jobbers so they could make the pre-labeled bin divider cards they put in record stores, you know that it was created out of one part ignorance and one part greed.
It's like the term "Hispanic" which was created in its current meaning by the Bureau of the Census and the OMB in order to have a "neutral" name for people of many races and ethnicities whose only commonality was a heritage going back to places where Spanish was the dominant language. So a kechua speaker from Ecuador with indigenous heritage is treated the same way as a Spanish speaker of Italian parents from Argentina.
The term Regional Mexican is not used in Mexico. The term "Hispanic" is not used with its US meaning in Latin America. But both terms are well understood in the US, properly used or not.
Within Spanish language radio, we know that "Regional Mexican" really can mean one of a number of separate formats or an amalgamation of several of them. So, since the name is not patently offensive, we use it... and, importantly, Nielsen, BDS, MediaBase and others recognize it as the proper name for those formats playing the "country music of Mexico". But, as with many terms-of-the-trade that are misused by outsiders, we know what Regional Mexican means.
In other words, where it matters, folks know what the term covers; there is no confustion. While the correct term should be "grupera" this particular horse is out of the barn and not going back. Does it effect the format it describes? No, it does not because the term is not used to any extent on the air at stations that play banda, norteña, ranchera and other music forms from the genre.
As I said, the term "Hispanic" correctly means "anyone from Hispania" which is the area of the ancient Roman province. The term was stolen out of disuse by the Census and we generally know what it means. But that does not mean it is uniformly liked or appropriate; one of my daughters has a T-shirt that says, "I'm not Hispanic, I'm not Latina. I'm Puerto Rican". She hates the term, just as those of us in Spanish language radio don't particularly like the Regional Mexican term.
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You just did an eloquent job of explaining the un-explainable by introducing the terms "Rack Jobbers", "Pre-labeled Bin Divider Cards," "Indigenous Heritage," "Italian Parents from Argentina," and "Grupera" in the same response. This is known as "Baffle with BS," "Baffle with PhD," or "Basura Ultra Mejor." Society is waaay too focused on Hispanic-Latina-Black-Purple-Roman-Nortena-Puerta-Green race/color/language --- we're Americans, not Regional Hyphenated-Americans --- except for Illegal Trespassers, because they are NOT Americans, no matter what their country of origin . . . Feel free to defend illegal immigrants and then rally against illegal "pirate" broadcasters - there's no difference.
How can you object to the simple statement that "Hispanic" is a U.S. Government-invented term that is neither about race nor ethnicity? It is not even culturally based. It is a "basket" that holds everyone from places or areas where Spanish is a significant language. It can, in in both fact and practice, include an indigenous Zapotec person from the Tehuántepec Isthmus in Mexico to someone from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where 40% of the population is of direct Italian heritage.
And the need for the invented "Hispanic" term, where a word with very different meaning was appropriated and re-purposed, came from the legislation of our very own U. S. Congress which required the "hyphenation" of every US Citizen and resident so as to comply with quota-based appropriation of monies and resources as part of an effort to create racial and ethnic neutrality in the nation.
And those Argentines and Mexicans are all "Americans" too. In the USA, we've "appropriated" the term to mean "people of the USA" when, in fact, the word also means "people of North and South America".
But back to the point: "Regional Mexican" music is another of those imprecise terms, just like "American". In the US, it means what in Mexico is called "grupera" music. It means, in an unspecific manner, rancheras and mariachi tunes and norteñas and banda songs. In the broadcasting industry and in the music business as well, we know what the term Regional Mexican means. Outside of the trade, it does not matter and nobody cares.
Regional Mexican music is a group of music genres and their variants which are autoctonous to Mexico, and imported to what is now the U.S.A. by persons from the present day and past territory of Mexico. It is seldom interpreted by other than Mexicans or those of Mexican heritage, and it has been given an inaccurate name in the US by the retail portion of the US music business for the convenience of commerce.
And the whole subject has nada, nothing to do with the migratory status of those who enjoy that kind of music, whatever they call it.
However, I think it is wonderful that Americans (in the US meaning of the term) can celebrate their varied and amazing heritage. Not so long ago, my ancestors endured things like signs saying "no dogs or Irish allowed"; today we are learning to be proud of where we came from and the many things that brought us together despite our apparent differences.
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It actually made sense to me. What part of it was BS?
This is a radio board. What part of his post triggered you into this political babble??? I'm genuinely curious.
DE did a very good job of explaining why Regional Mexican is just a generalization of a wide range of musical styles. I get it. It would be like throwing classic country, Red Dirt Country, Cajun country and that trash called Georgia Florida Line into one and calling it "country music". Sure, it's not wrong, but they all sound different.
I made no such statement anywhere anytime.
As I said, "We're Americans, not Regional-Hyphenated Americans." What a concept.
Various groups that have come to the United States have been including a reference to their heritage for well over a century. Italo-Americans used the term in the last part of the 19th Century, for example. You are trying to find fault in something that is often a source of pride and which has been used "forever".
Next you are going to tell Texans not to refer to themselves that way!
David, I do understand and appreciate your insightful observations on the radio marketplace and audience analysis. Of course, radio broadcasters need to know which listener segments are growing and which are shrinking. This entails the slicing and dicing of races, ages, sexes, and all kinds of subsets. The same is true of political parties. That’s Demographics 101.
Where I part company is when the discussion goes off the rails to make claims involving the condemnation of certain opinions. Human opinions are neither right nor wrong; they may be dopey, misguided, way-off-base, or otherwise lacking factual substance, but by definition, an opinion is a viewpoint - and viewpoints cannot be condemned simply by disagreement - except that’s what happens in today’s ultra-sensitive environment. “Racial” discussions do not imply “Racism” but that's where you and others end up too many times. It would be helpful for everyone to avoid seeing racism when the statement is simply racial in tone. And now, back to our subject, "Is La Mejor Still On" . . .
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