by Alfredo Galindo

Right on time for Hispanic Heritage Month, Amazon Music premiered the first episode of a documentary titled “Gen Mex” which celebrates the global impact of a new generation of Mexican artists and musicians.

From left to right, Mexican entertainers Peso Pluma and Natanael Cano(first artist to make “corridos tumbados” a hit.)

The documentary series directed by Alejandra Hinojosa focuses mostly on Regional Mexicano singers a composers and a global sensation which has provided the genre with a new fusion of sounds called which has the essence of the traditional corrido music which according to some of the musicians are telling stories that go back to the Mexican Revolution but now reflecting the lives of the new generation exposed to social media and the need to express their feelings through new music and technologies.

A ball, scene from the Mexican Revolution by José Guadalupe Posada (1851–1913)

That´s when a member of Generation X as myself gets a little confused, even disappointed, as corridos in Mexican history may go back the Mexican Revolution and the folk music which told the tales of the Revolutionary heroes and villains from one town to another, but misses the presence or even the mention of one of the greatest corridos bands, Los Tigres del Norte, which all of the living and kicking members were invited just in time for the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration to the White House during the same time of the release of “Gen Mex” first episode.

And not only that: we hear one of the Gen Mex most notable members referring to the Regional Mexicano genre as practically the only one that saves Music globally during an “Apocalypse in Music in general.” Most of the artists in this doc, in some way agree that in Mexican history, great artists and composers weren’t able to triumph worldwide. Not until an indigenous composer Juventino Rosas took the world by storm bout 130 years ago with his waltz “Sobre las Olas” (“Over the Waves.”) His work was on par with his contemporary John Strauss Jr.’s masterpiece “The Blue Danube” to the point that Strauss Jr. Is often mistakenly credited with having composed Rosas’s waltz! This error was famously portrayed in the Juventino Rosas 1950 biopic “Sobre las Olas”, directed by Ismael Rodriguez and starring one legendary corrido singer, Pedro Infante.

María José “Majo” Aguilar Carrillo is a Mexican singer and songwriter. Aguilar’s Tributo, is a musical tribute to her grandparents Antonio Aguilar and Flor Silvestre.

But referring with justice to the people who opened the way for Regional Mexicano artists doesn’t seem to matter since the opening of the first episode where members of Banda MS, consider that “ … in the past, we were labeled as violent, misogynistic, and vulgar” while it was paved by legendary singers as Lucha Villa, Lola Beltrán or Flor Silvestre (abuela of Majo Aguilar, who appears also in the doc), and maybe now besides Majo there are voices in the genre like singer and writers like Majo and Ana Bárbara, but when you turn to the other side there´s reggeaton which don’t give women the place they equally deserve.

So, yes, it’s a fact Regional Mexican music grew 56% on streaming partly because of the “corridos tumbados” (even Taylor Swift danced to Peso Pluma´s rhythm at the Grammys), and moneywise it may be the best of times for the genre but … will these fusion of corridos stand the test of time or will it happen a similar thing with Los Tigres del Norte now, where Los Tucanes de Tijuana and “La Chona” are considered the first band to put corridos in the map worldwide? For now, let´s just wait for the next “Gen Mex” episode”.