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The first history of the music that binds together Mexican immigrant communities
Música Norteña
Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation between Nations
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Cathy Ragland
"Ragland's ethnomusicological approach to música norteña’s evolution and its contemporary relevance, brings the topic to life. The music is clearly a prism to examining a broad swath of social, political, economic, cultural, and communications issues. Her musical analysis is fresh, rare, and valuable."
—Daniel Sheehy, Director and Curator, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Música norteña, a musical genre with its roots in the folk ballad traditions of northern Mexico and the Texas-Mexican border region, has become a hugely popular musical style in the U.S., particularly among Mexican immigrants. Featuring evocative songs about undocumented border-crossers, drug traffickers, and the plight of immigrant workers, música norteña has become the music of a "nation between nations." Música Norteña is the first definitive history of this transnational music that has found enormous commercial success in norteamérica.
Cathy Ragland, an ethnomusicologist and former music critic, serves up the fascinating fifty-year story of música norteña, enlivened by interviews with important musicians and her own first-hand observations of live musical performances. Beyond calling our attention to musical influences, Ragland shows readers the social and economic forces at work behind the music. By comparing música norteña with other popular musical forms, including conjunto tejano, she helps us understand and appreciate the musical ties that bind the Mexican diaspora.
Excerpt
Reviews
"Música Norteña is the first book to take on such a wide-ranging consideration of this immensely important and widespread Mexican-based musical culture. Ragland makes skilled use of the narrative content of voices ranging from the corridos of Washington’s Yakima Valley to the cronistas on the Mexican-U.S. border. The excellent musical analyses, the careful lyrical scrutiny, and the author’s own decades-long experience make this a first-rate and unique contribution, the most authoritative and broad-based examination of music of Mexican and Mexican-American communities to date."
—T. M. Scruggs, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Iowa
"Ragland has written an impressive examination of the many "borderland" musics popular among Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the Tex-Mex region of the Mexico-US border. Thanks to her background as a journalist, Ragland writes in a readable style. She packs the book with thorough research, in-depth musical and lyrical analysis, and insightful theoretical discussions of social and cultural issues related to such topics as ethnic identity and transnationalization.... [A] valuable contribution to the growing body of literature on Latin American music. Summing Up: Highly recommended."
—Choice
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Mexicanidad and Música Norteña in the “Two Mexicos”
2. Regional Identity, Class, and the Emergence of “Border Music”
3. Border Culture, Migration, and the Development of Early Música Norteña
4. Modern Música Norteña and the Undocumented Immigrant
5. Los Tigres del Norte and the Transnationalization of Música Norteña in the Working-Class Mexican Diaspora
Conclusion
Glossary
References
Selected Discography
Interviews
Index
About the Author(s)
 | Cathy Ragland is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology in the Department of Music and Dance at the University of Texas, Pan American. She is a former music critic for the San Antonio Express-News, Seattle Times and Austin American-Statesman, where she wrote about Texas-Mexican music and música norteña, among other popular genres. She also cofounded the Mariachi Academy of New York, a community-based music program for youth in East Harlem. |
Subject Categories
Latino/a Studies
Music and Dance
American Studies
In the series
Studies in Latin American and Caribbean Music, edited by Peter Manuel.
Studies in Latin American and Caribbean Music, edited by Peter Manuel, aims to present interdisciplinary studies in the traditional and contemporary musics of Latin America and the Caribbean.