(Los Tigres Del Norte)
This week’s musical endeavor began to feel a bit like a ball of confusion in which, the more answers I got, the more questions I had. To be honest, I still have questions, but here is what I’ve figured out.
Conjunto/norteño music today consists of an accordion based ensemble that usually includes a button accordion and bajo sexto guitar. Modern groups can also include a drum set and keyboard. The rhythm of the music is usually steady and consistent with various tempos, with more modern ones having a stronger and faster beat. Many norteño bands will contain Mexican state names or choose to attach “del Norte” (of the North) to their band names. Some bands will even have their own unique signatures for their songs, with Los Tigres Del Norte having a series of flutters inserted into their tracks. This genre of music is special in that it is a genre that, like the corrido, represents the attitudes and spirit of the working class Mexican.
That…and a bit of something else.
I began my dive into norteño music under the wrong assumption that norteño music (music from Mexico) and Tejano conjuntos (from, well, Texas) are essentially the same thing. Little did I know that I was very, very wrong about that. In a way that is almost sacrilegious? Why? Perhaps it was my lack of sources. Perhaps it is truly a mystery. But I could not for the life of me figure out which came first, which was adapted from which, the Texan conjunto, or the Mexican norteño music. The initial research seemed straightforward, until it wasn’t. Let me start from the beginning.
Emperor Maximilian I brought the first seeds of conjunto norteño music from Europe to Mexico through the marching bands and musicians he kept to entertain him a little after the mid 1800s. When his empire was destroyed, his people fled north to what is now southwestern United States. Norteño developed from a blending of really a lot of things. Spanish traditions, local traditions, European traditions, and most importantly, Germans. See, the Germans basically did God’s work by introducing the diatonic button accordion (used in their polka music) in the 1860s-1870s which many Mexicans found fairly easy to figure out (the freakin whiplash I got when I heard how eerily similar norteño music and German polka music sound was probably enough to break my spine and ensure I would never walk again).
The music basically grew from there. The bajo sexto guitar was added along with the tambora de rancho in the 1890s so by the time we hit close to the 1900s, the music was hugely popular at parties throughout Texas and Mexico with everyone, but Anglo people. Seriously, there was one report from the San Antonio Express in which they describe these dances as, “fandangos so frequent they are a great curse to the country.” ( I’m beginning to think that we Mexicans can never have nice things without someone complaining about it). This negative attitude towards our music persisted long into the twentieth century.
The real growth for norteño music happened when companies like RCA Victor, Decca, and Columbia started to invest (read: exploit) traditional Hispanic music in the Southwest hoping to replicate the same success they had with African American music in the early 1920s. And I suppose it did work, though, the big success with conjunto music can also be credited to the “father of modern conjunto,” Narciso Martinez alongside Santiago Jiminez. The pair were essentially the innovators of what would become the modern day conjunto, inciting active commercial involvement in major recording labels at the time which encouraged record and phonograph sales. How? Well, the radio music would basically play at public dances (and continas, which Anglo people were not very happy about because we can’t have nice things), people would listen to the conjuntos, and then they’d rush over to buy the tracks. Most importantly, Narciso Martinez can be credited with dropping the old German techniques of playing, giving the conjunto its brighter, snappier sound.
Newer innovations which made the modern conjunto were added after him of course. Valerio Longorio introduced the modern trap drums into the conjunto in 1949 which combined well with the contrabass introduced by Santiago Jiminez in 1936. Valerio Longorio made what I think was the most significant change to the conjunto by adding vocals into the genre. (Vocals. As in, before, all this time, no one was singing in a conjunto. At all. What).
This is when I realized, this entire time, I was looking, not at one genre of music, but at two? What? What? Then why do all my sources about the two basically tell me the same thing? Why does the music sound the same? Why are the histories treated as the same histories?
The answers I got were this: I have no clue and my sources suck. As a result, I’ve got some vague guesses that everyone should take with a grain of salt.
What I can tell you is that there are definitely two genres, conjunto and norteño (two DIFFERENT GENRES) which are interconnected because they both developed along the border for a rural, working class audience that flowed along the Rio Bravo. Norteño music was most likely a derivative of the Texas conjunto that grew to be very popular among Mexicans in the north and eventually in other parts of Mexico. It makes sense, especially given the huge German population that resided in Texas at the time.
The origins are iffy, but the important thing is not to get the two confused. For a couple of important reasons really. For one, while closely related, saying the two are the same thing is like saying American rock music and British rock music are the same thing. For another, some Texans are really really really really adamant about not getting the two mixed up. It’s a delicate balance for Mexican-Texans. And when I say, “Mexican-Texans” or “Tejanos”, I’m talking about the Mexican Americans who have been living in Texas since before it even was Texas, back when it was a part of Mexico. There has always been a lot of pressure for them to incorporate into Anglo society, especially after Texas officially became a part of the USA. Thus, many Texans are very protective over maintaining their culture and get more than a little defensive over being considered just “Mexican.”
So, how can you differentiate between the two?
The answer is: good luck trying to if you’re not familiar with the music. If you really want to try though, I’d suggest trying to compare the performances of Eddie Gonzalez (Texas) and Ramón Ayala (norteño) for the song, “El Disgusto.” Most people say they just know the difference when they hear it (even my mom. I asked her if she could hear the difference and she said, “Conjunto just sounds more…Texan.” Thanks mom). There are a few technical differences between the two that are easier to catch, like how norteño music usually centers around the Mexican song ballad, or how Texan music really loves its instrumentals, so there’s a starting point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ixljwgGOBY
Although it’s hard to differentiate the two, the difference is very important for Tejanos who are angry at the fact that a lot of their traditional conjuntos are vanishing from radio stations and being replaced with norteño music with only a few conjunto record labels remaining. The unfortunate consequences of this anger is that a lot of times it manifests itself in the form of anti-immigrant rhetoric from Tejanos who feel like their traditions are being invaded by Mexicans crossing the border and settling in Texas. And, as a lot of people have become intolerant of Mexican immigrants, Tejanos fear that they’ll suffer the brunt of that intolerance as well.
But the truth is even norteño music has been in a bit of decline as well. Music thrives on innovation, and norteño music hasn’t had any big changes since the 1960s when artists began adding modern technology and instruments to their ensembles. However, in 2014, one of the most iconic norteño bands, Los Tigres Del Norte, contrubuted one of the most progressive changes to their music by releasing the song “Era Diferente,” a song a bout a lesbian teenager who falls in love with her best friend. It’s the first time ever that a norteño band has ever written a gay love song and it gives a lot of hope for the future survival of the genre.
To finish this deep dive by saying that I was really surprised by some of the racist and intolerant things I came across when researching the two genres, and I really do hope Mexicans and Tejanos are able to someday reach an impasse. We’ve got the same roots, so we should respect each other. If anything, the similarities between are two beloved genres show exactly that.
Sources:
Dickey, Dan W. “MUSICA NORTENA.” The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), Texas State Historical Association, 15 June 2010, tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/xbm01.
Elbein, Saul. “Get Your Norteño out of My Conjunto.” The Texas Observer, 8 Dec. 2012, www.texasobserver.org/get-your-norteno-out-of-my-conjunto/.
Gurza, AgustÍn. “Strachwitz Frontera Collection.” Conjunto Music: You Know It When You Hear It | Strachwitz Frontera Collection, 3 June 2015, frontera.library.ucla.edu/node/328957.
“Norteño (Music) .” Norteño (Music) – The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia, 14 Aug. 2010, www.artandpopularculture.com/Norte%C3%B1o_%28music%29.
Pena, Manuel. “The Texas-Mexican Conjunto.” Migrations in History , smithsonianeducation.org/migrations/bord/txmxcon.html.