Tejano music ( es, música tejana), also known as Tex-Mex music, is a popular music style fusing Mexican and US influences. Typically, Tejano combines Mexican Spanish vocal styles with dance rhythms from Czech and German genres – particularly
polka
Polka is a dance and genre of dance music originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though associated with Czech culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas.
History
Etymology
The term ...
or
waltz
The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position.
History
There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
. Tejano music is traditionally played by small groups featuring accordion and guitar or bajo sexto. Its evolution began in northern Mexico (a variation known as ).
It reached a much larger audience in the late 20th-century thanks to the explosive popularity of the singer
Selena
Selena Quintanilla Pérez (; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer. Called the " Queen of Tejano music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mex ...
("The Queen of Tejano"),
Mazz
Mazz is a Tejano band originally from Brownsville, Texas. The band was known for their idiosyncratic and innovative form of Tejano cumbia which made them distinguishable among their counterparts. Mazz became one of the most popular Tejano music b ...
, and other performers like Ramon Ayala,
La Mafia
La Mafia is a five-time Grammy Award-winning musical group. It has its roots in the Northside neighborhood of Houston, Texas, and has charted a course as a Tejano music, Latin music band.
History
La Mafia was founded in 1980 in Houston, TX. ...
,
Ram Herrera
Ramiro "Ram" Herrera is a Tejano musician. He was nominated at the Latin Grammy Awards of 2002 in the category Latin Grammy Award for Best Tejano Album for the 2001 album '' Ingrata'', and nominated again for '' Ram Herrera and the Outlaw Band'' ...
,
La Sombra
La Sombra de Chicago or La Sombra de Tony Guerrero or even the Windy City Boys is a Tejano band founded by Tony Guerrero. Originally from the Chicago suburb of Aurora, Illinois, the group gained national acclaim and success after moving to Corp ...
,
Elida Reyna
Elida Reyna also known as Elida (born August 17, 1972 in San Antonio, Texas) is an American Tejano music singer.Billboard – March 20, 1999 p. 19 "Elida Reyna and Bobby Pulido were celebrated as new major forces in Tejano music at the new Teja ...
,
Elsa García,
Laura Canales
Laura Canales (August 19, 1954 – April 16, 2005) was an American Tejano musician and an original inductee in the Tejano Roots Hall of Fame. Canales was born in Kingsville, Texas.
Early years
Laura Canales was raised in Kingsville, Texas. She ...
,
Oscar Estrada
Oscar Estrada (February 15, 1904 – January 2, 1978) was a Major League Baseball pitcher who appeared in one game for the St. Louis Browns in 1929. The left-hander stood 5'8" and weighed 160 lbs.
Estrada played in 1924 and 1925 for the in ...
,
Jay Perez
Jay Perez (born September 23, 1963) is an American Tejano musician, who is known for his mixing of rhythm and blues with traditional Tejano music.
Career
Jay was born in San Antonio on September 21, 1963. He was raised by his mother, Janie Na ...
,
Emilio Navaira
Emilio H. Navaira III (August 23, 1962 – May 16, 2016) was an American singer-songwriter of Tejano and country music. He is the winner of one Grammy Award and one Latin Grammy Award.
Known to most by the mononym Emilio, he charted more than ...
,
Esteban "Steve" Jordan,
Shelly Lares
Michelle Yvette Lares (born November 13, 1971), best known as Shelly Lares, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and percussionist. Starting in 1984, Lares was nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year for thirteen consecutive years and ...
,
David Lee Garza
David Lee Garza (born February 15, 1957) is an American Tejano musician and bandleader. Garza was born and raised in Poteet, Texas.
Garza and his band have been responsible for jumpstarting the careers of numerous Tejano vocalists by way of coll ...
,
Jennifer Peña
Jennifer Marcella Peña (born September 17, 1983) is an American Tejano/Latin pop singer who has sold over 3.5 million records internationally. Peña was born in San Antonio, Texas, and is the third and youngest daughter of Jaime and Mary Peñ ...
and
La Fiebre La Fiebre ( es, The Fever) is a Tejano music band from Pasadena, Texas.
History
The band formed in 1986. They have said that they chose their name after suffering from several fevers due to trying to develop a name for themselves. The original ...
.
Origins
Europeans from Germany (first during the Spanish regime in the 1830s), Poland, and what is now the Czech Republic migrated to Texas and Mexico, bringing with them their style of music and dance. They brought with them the accordion,
polkas
Polka is a dance and genre of dance music originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though associated with Czech culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas.
History
Etymology
The term ...
music and dance. Their music influenced the Tejanos. Central to the evolution of early Tejano music was the blend of traditional forms such as the
corrido
The corrido () is a popular narrative metrical tale and poetry that forms a ballad. The songs are often about oppression, history, daily life for criminals, the vaquero lifestyle, and other socially relevant topics. Corridos were widely popular ...
and
mariachi
Mariachi (, , ) is a genre of regional Mexican music that dates back to at least the 18th century, evolving over time in the countryside of various regions of western Mexico. The usual mariachi group today consists of as many as eight violins, t ...
, and Continental European styles, such as polka introduced by Germany, Polish, and Czech settlers in the late 19th century. In particular, the accordion was adopted by Tejano folk musicians at the turn of the 20th century, and it became a popular instrument for amateur musicians in Texas and Northern Mexico. Small bands known as ''orquestas'', featuring amateur musicians, became a staple at community dances. Early inceptions of Tejano music demonstrated musical innovation, but also a socially and culturally innovation in themes that countered narratives of dominant culture.
At the turn of the century, Tejanos were mostly involved in ranching and agriculture. The only diversion was the occasional traveling musician who would come to the ranches and farms. Their basic instruments were the
flute
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
, and
drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...
, and they sang songs that were passed down through the generations from songs originally sung in Mexico. One of these musicians was
Lydia Mendoza
Lydia Mendoza (May 31, 1916December 20, 2007) was a Mexican-American guitarist and singer of Tejano and traditional Mexican-American music. Historian Michael Joseph Corcoran has stated that she was "The Mother of Tejano Music", an art form tha ...
, who became one of the first to record
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
music as part of RCA's expansion of their popular
race records
Race records were 78 rpm, 78-rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans between the 1920s and 1940s.Oliver, Paul. "Race record." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 13 Feb. 2015. They primarily contained race music, comprising vari ...
of the 1920s. As these traveling musicians traveled into areas where the German Texans and other European settlers lived. Narciso "El Huracan del Valle" Martinez, known as the "Father of
Conjunto
The term ''conjunto'' (, literally 'group', 'ensemble') refers to several types of small musical ensembles present in different Latin American musical traditions, mainly in Mexico and Cuba. While Mexican conjuntos play styles such as '' norteño' ...
Music", defined the
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
's role in conjunto music.
Norteño/conjunto accordion pioneer
Narciso Martínez (1911–1992) learned many tunes from German, Polish and Czech brass bands and transposed them to his accordion. Martínez gave accordion playing a new virtuosity in the 1930s, when he adopted the two button row accordion. At the same time, he formed a group with
Santiago Almeida
Santiago Almeida (July 25, 1911 – July 8, 1999) was a Texas musician influential in the development of the musical genres of '' tejano'' and ''conjunto''.
Biography
Almeida was born in Skidmore, Texas and grew up on a farm. In his teens p ...
, a ''
bajo sexto
Bajo sexto (Spanish: "sixth bass") is a Mexican string instrument from the guitar family with 12 strings in six double courses. A closely related instrument is the bajo quinto (Spanish: "fifth bass") which has 10 strings in five double courses. ...
'' player.
With the keyboard, drums and bajo sexto, Tejanos now had a sound they could begin to call their own. In the 1940s, Valerio Longoria introduced lyrics to conjunto music, further establishing the Tejano claim to this new sound.
In the 1950s,
Isidro Lopez further revolutionized the Tejano sound by emphasizing less on the traditional Spanish that Valerio used and using the new Tex-Mex instead. This created a newer sound and took us one step close to the sound we have today. In the 1960s and 70s
Little Joe and the Latinaires, later renamed La Familia,
The Latin Breed, Luis Ramirez Y su Latin Express and others infused the orchestra sound into the Tejano sound, taking their influences from the Pop, R&B and other forms of music. In the late 70s and early 80s, there was a new sound emerging with up-and-coming groups like McAllen's
Espejismo
''Mirage'' ( es, Espejismo) is a 1972 Peruvian drama film directed by Armando Robles Godoy. Robles Godoy wrote the screenplay together with Bernardo Batievsky. It is the only Peruvian film to date to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Plot
A ...
, led by songwriter/lead singer Rudy Valdez, and Brownsville natives Joe Lopez, Jimmy Gonzalez and
Mazz
Mazz is a Tejano band originally from Brownsville, Texas. The band was known for their idiosyncratic and innovative form of Tejano cumbia which made them distinguishable among their counterparts. Mazz became one of the most popular Tejano music b ...
introduced the keyboard sound to Tejano which was influenced by the disco sound of the era. During that period, La Mafia became the first Tejano band to put on rock-style shows for their generation.
History
Tejano musicians like
Flaco Jiménez
Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez (born March 11, 1939) is an American singer, songwriter and accordionist from San Antonio, Texas. He is known for playing Norteño, Tex Mex and Tejano music. Jiménez has been a solo performer and session musician, as ...
and Esteban Steve Jordan carried on Martinez's tradition of accordion virtuosity and became a fixture on the international World Music scene by the 1980s.
In the 1950s and 1960s,
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
and
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
made inroads, and electric
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
s and
drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...
s were added to conjunto combos. Also, performers such as Little Joe added both nuances of
soul music
Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...
and
R&B, and a
Chicano
Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American ident ...
political consciousness. Little Joe, Estevan Jordan, The Royal Jesters, Romances, Carlos Guzman, Joe Bravo, Dimas Three, Chuck & the Dots, the Sky Tones, the Broken Hearts, the Volumes and
Sunny Ozuna and the Sunliners were popular in 1960s.
The 1960s and 1970s brought a new chicano music and the first La Onda Tejana Broadcasters. Popular Tejano musician and producer
Paulino Bernal
Paulino Bernal (June 22, 1939 – September 10, 2022) was an American accordion player and Christians, Christian Evangelism, evangelist. He was a member of the Texano Tex-Mex group Conjunto Bernal.
In 1972, Paulino converted from the apostolic s ...
of the Conjunto Bernal discovered and introduced to the Tejano music scene the norteño band
Los Relampagos del Norte
LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to:
Science and technology
* Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation
* Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers
* Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...
with
Ramón Ayala
Ramón Covarrubias Garza (born December 8, 1945), known by his stage name Ramón Ayala, is a Mexican singer, composer and songwriter of Norteño music.
Discography
Studio albums (Ramón Ayala Y Sus Bravos Del Norte)
* ''La Pura Maña'' (1971 ...
and
Cornelio Reyna
Cornelio Reyna Cisneros (September 16, 1940 – January 22, 1997), better known as Cornelio Reyna, was a Regional Mexican singer, composer, bajo sextist and actor. He made over 60 recordings of Norteño (music), Norteño and Mariachi music. He wa ...
on his Bego Records. Ayala still enjoys success on both sides of the border. Reyna enjoyed a very successful career as an actor and solo singer and resurfaced in the Tejano scene with a major hit with his collaboration with Tejano band
La Mafia
La Mafia is a five-time Grammy Award-winning musical group. It has its roots in the Northside neighborhood of Houston, Texas, and has charted a course as a Tejano music, Latin music band.
History
La Mafia was founded in 1980 in Houston, TX. ...
. He toured constantly until his death. In the 1960s and 1970s, the first La Onda Tejana broadcasting pioneers hit the airwaves including Marcelo Tafoya (first recipient of the Tejano Music Awards "Lifetime Achievement Award), Mary Rodriguez, Rosita Ornelas, and Luis Gonzalez, shortly followed by an influx of broadcasters including the Davila family of San Antonio. This central Texas support by popular broadcasters helped fuel La Onda.
In 1987,
Gloria Anzaldúa
Gloria may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music Christian liturgy and music
* Gloria in excelsis Deo, the Greater Doxology, a hymn of praise
* Gloria Patri, the Lesser Doxology, a short hymn of praise
** Gloria (Handel)
** Gloria (Jenkins) ...
wrote:
La Onda popularity continued to surge in the early to mid-1980s with the fusion progression of Tejano music coming to the forefront regionally with Tejano ballads like Espejismo's hit "Somos Los Dos", written and sung by
McAllen
McAllen is the largest city in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States, and the 22nd-most populous city in Texas. It is located at the southern tip of the state in the Rio Grande Valley, on the Mexico–United States border. The city limits extend ...
native Rudy Valdez, and
La Sombra
La Sombra de Chicago or La Sombra de Tony Guerrero or even the Windy City Boys is a Tejano band founded by Tony Guerrero. Originally from the Chicago suburb of Aurora, Illinois, the group gained national acclaim and success after moving to Corp ...
with their Tex-Mex English and Spanish brand of Tejano. As the 1990s dawned, La Mafia, already holding over a dozen Tejano Music Awards, originated a new Tejano style later to become a Tejano standard. With extensive touring from as early as 1988, they eventually opened the doors for such artists as
Selena Quintanilla
Selena Quintanilla Pérez (; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer. Called the " Queen of Tejano music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mex ...
,
Emilio Navaira
Emilio H. Navaira III (August 23, 1962 – May 16, 2016) was an American singer-songwriter of Tejano and country music. He is the winner of one Grammy Award and one Latin Grammy Award.
Known to most by the mononym Emilio, he charted more than ...
,
Jay Perez
Jay Perez (born September 23, 1963) is an American Tejano musician, who is known for his mixing of rhythm and blues with traditional Tejano music.
Career
Jay was born in San Antonio on September 21, 1963. He was raised by his mother, Janie Na ...
, and
Mazz
Mazz is a Tejano band originally from Brownsville, Texas. The band was known for their idiosyncratic and innovative form of Tejano cumbia which made them distinguishable among their counterparts. Mazz became one of the most popular Tejano music b ...
. Electronic instruments and synthesizers increasingly dominated the sound, and Tejano music increasingly appealed to bilingual country and rock fans. In the wake of her murder, Selena Quintanilla's music received attention from a mainstream American audience as well. Quintanilla, known as "The Queen of Tejano Music", became the first female Tejano artist to win a Grammy and her ''
Ven Conmigo'' became the first Tejano album by a female artist to be certified gold.
Since the end of the 20th century, Tejano has seen a decline of dedicated radio stations across the US, due to several factors. Among these is the success of
Intocable
Intocable ("Untouchable" in English) is an American band from Zapata, Texas that plays Regional Mexican music; specializing in Norteño and Tejano music. It was started by friends Ricardo Javier Muñoz and René Orlando Martínez in the earl ...
. As a result, many radio stations across the U.S., especially in Texas, have converted to Norteño/banda. This has caused Tejano internet radio to become popular.
At the turn of the 21st century, Tejano influence has declined in part due to decreased promotion, the rise in
Regional Mexican
Regional Mexican is a Latin music radio format encompassing the musical genres from the different parts of rural Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Genres include banda, country en español, Duranguense, grupero, mariachi, New Mexico ...
and other Latin music, the breakup or retirement of established performers, and the emergence of few new performers. Most Tejano artists who performed throughout the 1990s during the music's peak who are still performing today have rarely played to the same wide attention in recent years. Regardless, today's Tejano music, while far more pop-oriented than its Depression-era roots, is still a regional musical style in several Tejano communities as well as in other parts of the United States.
Development
![Elida_Reyna](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Elida_Reyna.jpg)
Tejano music was born in Texas. Although it has influences from Mexico and other Latin American countries, the main influences are American. The types of music that make up Tejano are
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
,
roots music,
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
,
R&B, soul music, blues, country music and the Latin influences of
norteño,
mariachi
Mariachi (, , ) is a genre of regional Mexican music that dates back to at least the 18th century, evolving over time in the countryside of various regions of western Mexico. The usual mariachi group today consists of as many as eight violins, t ...
, and
Mexican cumbia
Mexican cumbia is a type of cumbia, a music which originated in Colombia but was reinvented and adapted in Mexico.
Origins
The cumbia started in Colombia in the 1800s. In the 1940s Colombian singer Luis Carlos Meyer Castandet emigrated to Mexic ...
. Tejano musicians such as
Emilio Emilio may refer to:
* Emilio Navaira, a Mexican-American singer often called "Emilio"
* Emilio Piazza Memorial School, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State
* Emilio (given name)
* ''Emilio'' (film), a 2008 film by Kim Jorgensen
See also
* Emílio (dis ...
and Raulito Navaira,
David Lee Garza
David Lee Garza (born February 15, 1957) is an American Tejano musician and bandleader. Garza was born and raised in Poteet, Texas.
Garza and his band have been responsible for jumpstarting the careers of numerous Tejano vocalists by way of coll ...
, and
Jay Perez
Jay Perez (born September 23, 1963) is an American Tejano musician, who is known for his mixing of rhythm and blues with traditional Tejano music.
Career
Jay was born in San Antonio on September 21, 1963. He was raised by his mother, Janie Na ...
exhibit influence from rock and roots music.
Tejano has various categories of music and bands. Three major categories are conjunto, orchestra/orquesta, and modern. A conjunto band is composed of
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
,
bajo sexto
Bajo sexto (Spanish: "sixth bass") is a Mexican string instrument from the guitar family with 12 strings in six double courses. A closely related instrument is the bajo quinto (Spanish: "fifth bass") which has 10 strings in five double courses. ...
,
electric bass
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck
The ...
, and
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
. Examples of conjunto bands are
Esteban "Steve" Jordan, and
The Hometown Boys. An orchestra/orquesta consists of bass, drums,
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...
,
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
, and a
brass section
The brass section of the orchestra, concert band, and jazz ensemble consist of brass instruments, and is one of the main sections in all three ensembles. The British-style brass band contains only brass and percussion instruments.
They contain ...
on which it relies heavily for its sound. Some examples of Modern bands are Ruben Ramos and the Texas Revolution, The Liberty Band, The Latin Breed,
La Mafia
La Mafia is a five-time Grammy Award-winning musical group. It has its roots in the Northside neighborhood of Houston, Texas, and has charted a course as a Tejano music, Latin music band.
History
La Mafia was founded in 1980 in Houston, TX. ...
,
Selena Quintanilla
Selena Quintanilla Pérez (; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer. Called the " Queen of Tejano music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mex ...
,
La Sombra
La Sombra de Chicago or La Sombra de Tony Guerrero or even the Windy City Boys is a Tejano band founded by Tony Guerrero. Originally from the Chicago suburb of Aurora, Illinois, the group gained national acclaim and success after moving to Corp ...
,
Elida Reyna
Elida Reyna also known as Elida (born August 17, 1972 in San Antonio, Texas) is an American Tejano music singer.Billboard – March 20, 1999 p. 19 "Elida Reyna and Bobby Pulido were celebrated as new major forces in Tejano music at the new Teja ...
y Avante,
Los Palominos Los Palominos are a Tejano group from Uvalde, Texas.
History
Los Palominos were formed in 1986 by four brothers under the name Los Tremendos Pequeños. Their repertoire includes polka, ''rancheras'', ''boleros'', ballads, and ''cumbias''. They si ...
,
David Lee Garza y Los Musicales
David Lee Garza (born February 15, 1957) is an American Tejano musician and bandleader. Garza was born and raised in Poteet, Texas.
Garza and his band have been responsible for jumpstarting the careers of numerous Tejano vocalists by way of col ...
,
Shelly Lares
Michelle Yvette Lares (born November 13, 1971), best known as Shelly Lares, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and percussionist. Starting in 1984, Lares was nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year for thirteen consecutive years and ...
,
Jay Perez
Jay Perez (born September 23, 1963) is an American Tejano musician, who is known for his mixing of rhythm and blues with traditional Tejano music.
Career
Jay was born in San Antonio on September 21, 1963. He was raised by his mother, Janie Na ...
, and
Mazz
Mazz is a Tejano band originally from Brownsville, Texas. The band was known for their idiosyncratic and innovative form of Tejano cumbia which made them distinguishable among their counterparts. Mazz became one of the most popular Tejano music b ...
.
![Bobby23](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Bobby23.jpg)
There has been an increasing Mexican influence on Tejano music resulting in a sound more like
Norteño. The accordion, while a historically popular instrument in Tejano music, has gone from a secondary instrument to a must-have instrument. Today, groups like
Sunny Sauceda
Sunny Sauceda is a three-time Grammy-winning Tejano music artist from San Antonio, Texas. Sauceda plays the accordion and is known as the most energetic accordion player in the world. His accordion playing often overshadows his vocal prowess. Sauce ...
, Eddie Gonzalez, and
La Tropa F La Tropa F is a Tejano music group from San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision ...
emphasize the accordion.
Music industry
During the Post World War II years, local and regional companies emerged to record and market Tejano music. Key factors that influenced the production of Tejano music can be attributed to a diversifying American culture and greater socioeconomic opportunities enabled Mexican American musicians to perform and record music for regional audiences. Early popular forms of Tejano music in the form of female duets and ''orquesta tejana'' of the 1940s later influenced the development of Tex-Mex style of the 1950s, and ''La Onda Chicana (The Chicano Wave)'' of the 1960s. The growing popularity of accordion based music and "homegrown" records directly influenced the need for Tejano record producers and labels.
Record companies such as ''Discos Ideal'' established in San Benito, Texas in 1947 and Freddie Records established in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1970 are among the most prolific in producing ''conjunto'' style music. Freddie Records, named after founder, Freddie Martinez, Sr. has remained a key figure in the production of Tejano music well into the 21st century.
Influence
The term "Tex-Mex" is also used in American rock and roll for
Tejano-influenced performers such as the
Sir Douglas Quintet
The Sir Douglas Quintet was an American Rock music, rock band, formed in San Antonio in 1964. With their first hits, they were acclaimed in their home state. When their career was established (subsequent to working with Texas record producer Huey ...
and the
Texas Tornados
Texas Tornados is a Tejano supergroup, composed of some of country music's biggest artists who modernized the Tex-Mex style including Flaco Jiménez, Augie Meyers, Doug Sahm, and Freddy Fender. Its music is a fusion of conjunto (German and Norte ...
(featuring
Flaco Jiménez
Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez (born March 11, 1939) is an American singer, songwriter and accordionist from San Antonio, Texas. He is known for playing Norteño, Tex Mex and Tejano music. Jiménez has been a solo performer and session musician, as ...
,
Freddy Fender
Freddy Fender (born Baldemar Garza Huerta; June 4, 1937 – October 14, 2006) was an American Tejano, country and rock and roll musician, known for his work as a solo artist and in the groups Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados. He was bes ...
,
Augie Meyers
August "Augie" Meyers (born May 31, 1940) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, performer, studio musician, record producer, and record label owner. He is perhaps best known as a founding member of the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Texas ...
, and
Doug Sahm
Douglas Wayne Sahm (November 6, 1941 – November 18, 1999) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist born in San Antonio, Texas. Sahm is regarded as one of the main figures of Tex-Mex music, and as an important per ...
),
Los Super Seven
Los Super Seven is an American supergroup which debuted in 1998. According to Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "Los Super Seven isn't a band, per se – it's a collective, organized by manager Dan Goodman, who comes up with a concept for each o ...
,
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
Domingo "Sam" Samudio (born February 28, 1937, in Dallas, Texas, United States), better known by his stage name Sam the Sham, is a retired American rock and roll singer. Sam the Sham was known for his camp robe and turban and hauling his equipme ...
,
Los Lobos
Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") are an American rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional music such as cumbia, ...
,
Latin Playboys
Latin Playboys was a musical group formed by David Hidalgo, Louie Pérez, Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake, active in the 1990s.
History
The band began with a series of demo recordings made by Hidalgo on a home cassette tape four-track machine. T ...
,
Louie and the Lovers,
The Champs
The Champs are an American rock band, most famous for their Latin-tinged rock and roll instrumental "Tequila". The group took their name from that of Gene Autry's horse, Champion, and was formed by studio executives at Autry's Challenge Recor ...
,
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, an ...
,
Calexico
Calexico () is a city in southern Imperial County, California. Situated on the Mexican border, it is linked economically with the much larger city of Mexicali, the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California. It is about east of San Diego ...
,
Los Lonely Boys
Los Lonely Boys are an American musical group from San Angelo, Texas. They play a style of music they call "Texican Rock n' Roll," combining elements of rock and roll, Texas blues, brown-eyed soul, country, and Tejano.
The band consists of thr ...
,
The Mavericks
The Mavericks are an American country music band from Miami, Florida. The band consists of Raul Malo (lead vocals, guitar), Paul Deakin (drums), Eddie Perez (lead guitar), and Jerry Dale McFadden (keyboards). Malo and Deakin founded the band in ...
,
Son de Rey
Son de Rey is an American Latin rock and world music Musical ensemble, band from Austin, Texas, United States. Son de Rey's Latin Alternative sound blends traditional cumbia, and Latin beats with electronica, pop electronica.
Biography
In 2014, ...
, and
Selena y Los Dinos
Selena y Los Dinos ( en, Selena and the Guys, Selena And the Dinos=Selena And The Dinos) was an American Tejano band formed in 1981 by Tejano singer Selena and her father Abraham Quintanilla. The band remained together until the murder of Sel ...
.
Texan accordion music has also influenced
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
trikitixa
The trikiti (standard Basque, pronounced ) trikitixa ( dialectal Basque, pronounced ), or eskusoinu txiki ("little hand-sound", pronounced )) is a two-row Basque diatonic button accordion with right-hand rows keyed a fifth apart and twelve uni ...
players.
Contemporary Swedish-American composer
Sven-David Sandström
Sven-David Sandström (30 October 1942, in Motala – 10 June 2019) was a Swedish classical composer of operas, oratorios, ballets, and choral works, as well as orchestral works.
Life and career
Sandström studied art history and musicology at ...
has incorporated Tejano stylings in his
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
.
Tejano and conjunto music is so popular that organizations such as the Guadalupe Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas hold annual festivals every year. The performers have included legends such as
Flaco Jimenez
José María Avizanda Glaría (born 24 May 1966), better known as Flaco, is a Spanish football coach and former player. He won the Norwegian Football Cup with Molde in 1994. Flaco has played for Rayo Vallecano from 1986 to 1990, where he was a ...
, conjunto groups from around the world, and contemporary artists.
Tejano music female singers of the late 1980s and 1990s
The unknown history of many Tejano female singers in the late 1980s and 1990s has remained in the dark because of little to no media exposure; perhaps, the media was fixated on the biggest names like
Selena
Selena Quintanilla Pérez (; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer. Called the " Queen of Tejano music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mex ...
,
Laura Canales
Laura Canales (August 19, 1954 – April 16, 2005) was an American Tejano musician and an original inductee in the Tejano Roots Hall of Fame. Canales was born in Kingsville, Texas.
Early years
Laura Canales was raised in Kingsville, Texas. She ...
,
Elsa García (singer)
Elsa Garcia (born 1956) is a Mexican American Tejano music, Tejano singer and producer from Houston, Texas, United States. She has had four albums certified gold, and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1991 for her album, ''Simplemente''.
Ea ...
,
Elida Reyna
Elida Reyna also known as Elida (born August 17, 1972 in San Antonio, Texas) is an American Tejano music singer.Billboard – March 20, 1999 p. 19 "Elida Reyna and Bobby Pulido were celebrated as new major forces in Tejano music at the new Teja ...
,
Shelly Lares
Michelle Yvette Lares (born November 13, 1971), best known as Shelly Lares, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and percussionist. Starting in 1984, Lares was nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year for thirteen consecutive years and ...
and a few others. They were famous and well promoted for good reasons, they each worked really hard to accomplish fame, they had amazing vocal talent, great producers, top class musicians (bands), and top recording companies that gave them all the publicity they needed. Tejano female singers Lynda V (and the Boys) and Letty Guval are two amongst others who made their mark in Tejano Music in 1990s but little is known about them. Lynda V (and the Boys) formed her band in 1988, signed a record contract with Bob Griever and
CBS Records CBS Records may refer to:
* CBS Records or CBS/Sony, former name of Sony Music, a global record company
* CBS Records International, label for Columbia Records recordings released outside North America from 1962 to 1990
* CBS Records (2006), founde ...
in 1990, and two years later signed a record deal with major company
Capitol EMI. Lynda V and the Boys worked together as a band until 2005. Letty Guval started her Tejano music career in 1994 after singing with the
University of Texas Pan American Mariachi Band in Edinburg for two years. She signed a record contract with Wicker Records in 1994 and signed a four-year contract with
Fonovisa-Platino Records; her career was short-lived, but she was the first female Tejano artist to be invited to sing at the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
during the
Clinton administration
Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...
in 1994. In her News article, Kelly James from the ''South Bend Tribune'' writes about Letty, "Born in California, raised in Mexico, and educated in Texas, Guval incorporates her cross-cultural experience into her music." In his book, Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr. writes about both, Letty Guval and Lynda V, he writes, "EMI Latin … had five relatively new female acts: Stephanie Lynn, Elsa García, Lynda V. and the Boys, Agnes Torres of the New Variety Band, and Delia y Culturas". About Letty Guval San Miguel says, "Occasionally, Tejano musicians provided only touches of music from other styles, their incorporation into Tejano music was brief enough so that it did not interrupt the beat of the song. Two examples come to mind—one from Letty Guval and the second from Conjunto Bernal. In the mid-1990s, Guval, a popular Tejana performer, recorded a ranchera called 'Sentimiento.' At key points in the song and for only a few seconds, she incorporated some ''banda'' rhythms." Both Lynda V. and Letty Guval traveled the United States and Mexico performing for many. In the 1990s both performed different times at the
Tejano Music Awards
The Tejano Music Awards (TMA) is an accolade created by former arts teacher and musician Rudy Trevino in 1980. The accolade recognizes outstanding performers of Tejano music, a German polka-based Latin music genre recorded in Spanish or English-la ...
and the Johnny Canales Show.
See also
*
Latin music
Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Music of Spain, Spain and Portuguese music, Portugal) ...
*
Chicano rock
Chicano rock is rock music performed by Mexican American (Chicano) groups or music with themes derived from Chicano culture. Chicano Rock, to a great extent, does not refer to any single style or approach. Some of these groups do not sing in Span ...
*
Chicano rap
Chicano rap is a subgenre of hip hop that embodies aspects of Southwest Mexican American or Chicano culture. It is typically performed by rappers and musicians of Mexican descent.
History Early years
The first widely recognized Chicano rap artis ...
*
Music of Texas
The U.S. state of Texas has long been a center for musical innovation and is the birthplace of many notable musicians. Texans have pioneered developments in Tejano and Conjunto music, Rock 'n Roll, Western swing, jazz, punk rock, country, hi ...
*
Carlos Santana
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band Santana, which pioneered a fusion of Rock and roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound featured ...
*
Tejano Music Awards
The Tejano Music Awards (TMA) is an accolade created by former arts teacher and musician Rudy Trevino in 1980. The accolade recognizes outstanding performers of Tejano music, a German polka-based Latin music genre recorded in Spanish or English-la ...
*
Chulas Fronteras
''Chulas Fronteras'' is a 1976 American documentary film which tells the story of the norteño or conjunto music which is played on both sides of the Mexico–Texas border. It was directed by Les Blank. A CD soundtrack of the music played in t ...
(1976 film)
*
Latin American music
The music of Latin America refers to music originating from Latin America, namely the Romance-speaking regions of the Americas south of the United States. Latin American music also incorporates African music from enslaved African people who were ...
*
Latin Grammy Award for Best Tejano Album
The Latin Grammy Award for Best Tejano Album is an honor presented annually at the Latin Grammy Awards, a ceremony that recognizes excellence and creates a wider awareness of cultural diversity and contributions of Latin recording artists in the ...
References
Further reading
*''Listening to Rosita: The Business of Tejana Music and Culture, 1930–1955'' by Mary Ann Villarreal, 2015, University of Oklahoma Press
External links
Tejano Music News
{{Authority control
Regional styles of Mexican music
Hispanic American music
Hispanic and Latino American culture in Texas
American styles of music
Mexican-American culture in Texas
Mexican styles of music
Music of Texas
Czech-American culture in Texas
German-American culture in Texas
Polish-American culture in Texas
1980s in Latin music
1990s in Latin music
Catholic music