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Tejano music (), also known as Tex-Mex music, is a popular music style fusing Mexican influences. Its evolution began in northern Mexico (a variation of
regional Mexican Regional Mexican music refers collectively to the regional subgenres of the country music of Mexico and its derivatives from the Southwestern United States. Each subgenre is representative of a certain region and its popularity also varies by ...
music known as ). It reached a larger audience in the late 20th century with the popularity of Mazz, Selena, and other performers like La Mafia, Ram Herrera, La Sombra, Elida Reyna, Elsa García, Laura Canales, Intocable, Jay Perez, Emilio Navaira, Esteban "Steve" Jordan, Shelly Lares, David Lee Garza, Jennifer Peña and La Fiebre.


Origins

The origins of the music tex-mex comes from the settlements of the
Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is ...
(first during the México regime in the 1830), they had culture mexican-usa, Chickasaw migrated to México and Texas, bringing with them their style of music and dance. They brought with them the accordion,
polkas Polka is a dance style and musical genre, genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Culture of the Czech Republic, Czech and Central Europe, Central E ...
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 (Spanish pronunciation: Help:IPA/Spanish, oˈriðo is a famous narrative metrical tale and poetry that forms a Ballad (music), ballad. The songs often feature topics such as oppression, history, daily life for criminals, the vaqu ...
and mariachi, and Continental European styles, such as polka introduced by German, 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 social and cultural 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 member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
,
guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
, and drum, and they sang songs that were passed down through the generations from songs originally sung in Mexico. One of these musicians was Lydia Mendoza, who became one of the first to record
Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...
music as part of RCA's expansion of their popular
race records Race records is a term for 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 var ...
of the 1920s. As these traveling musicians traveled into areas where the German Texans and other European settlers lived. ''Norteño''/''conjunto'' accordion pioneer Narciso Martínez, known as the "Father of Conjunto Music", defined the
accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"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 (mou ...
's role in conjunto music. He learned many tunes from German, Polish and Czech brass bands and transposed them to 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 '' bajo sexto'' player Santiago Almeida. With the accordion, 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 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, led by songwriter/lead singer Rudy Valdez, and Brownsville natives Joe Lopez, Jimmy Gonzalez, and Mazz introduced keyboard to Tejano, 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 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, and 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 African ...
and
country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
made inroads, and electric
guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
s and drums 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 African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...
and R&B, and a Chicano 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 Tejano 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 with Ramón Ayala and Cornelio Reyna 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. 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), Ramiro "Snowball" de la Cruz, 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 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 native Rudy Valdez, and La Sombra 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, Emilio Navaira, Jay Perez, and Mazz. 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. 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 music refers collectively to the regional subgenres of the country music of Mexico and its derivatives from the Southwestern United States. Each subgenre is representative of a certain region and its popularity also varies by ...
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

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, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
, roots music, rock, R&B, soul music, blues, country music and the Latin influences of norteño, mariachi, and Mexican cumbia. Tejano musicians such as Emilio and Raulito Navaira, David Lee Garza, and Jay Perez 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 language, German ', from '—"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 (mou ...
, bajo sexto,
electric bass The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an electric but with a longer neck and scale leng ...
, and
drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
. 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 electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...
,
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
, 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 brass band, British-style brass band contains only brass and percussion instrume ...
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, Selena Quintanilla, La Sombra, Elida Reyna y Avante, Los Palominos, David Lee Garza y Los Musicales, Shelly Lares, Jay Perez, and Mazz. Mexican influence on Tejano music has resulted in a sound increasingly 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, Eddie Gonzalez, and La Tropa F 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 San Benito is a city in Cameron County, Texas, Cameron County, in the US state of Texas, United States. Its population was 24,861 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. On April 3, 2007, San Benito celebrated the 100th anniversary of its ...
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 and the Texas Tornados (featuring Flaco Jiménez, Freddy Fender, Augie Meyers, and
Doug Sahm Douglas Wayne Sahm (November 6, 1941 – November 18, 1999) was an American musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from San Antonio, Texas. He is regarded as a key Tejano music, Tex-Mex music and Music of Texas, Texan Music pe ...
), Los Super Seven, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, Los Lobos, Latin Playboys, Louie and the Lovers,
The Champs The Champs are an American rock and roll band, most famous for their Latin-tinged 1958 instrumental single "Tequila (The Champs song), Tequila". The group took their name from that of Gene Autry's horse, Champion, and was formed by recording s ...
, Ry Cooder, Calexico,
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 music, country, and Tejano music. The ...
, The Mavericks, Son de Rey, and Selena y Los Dinos. 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 players. Contemporary Swedish-American composer Sven-David Sandström has incorporated Tejano stylings in his
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...
. 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 Jiménez, 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, Laura Canales, Elsa García (singer), Elida Reyna, Shelly Lares and a few others. They were famous and well promoted for good reason - they had notable vocal talent, great producers, top class musicians (bands), and recording studios that rushed to give them 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 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. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
during the Clinton administration 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 and the Johnny Canales Show.


See also

*
Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he r ...
* Chicano rap * Chicano rock * '' Chulas Fronteras'' (1976 film) *
Latin American music The music of Latin America refers to music originating from Latin America, namely the Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese-speaking regions of the Americas south of the United States. Latin American music highly incorpor ...
* Latin Grammy Award for Best Tejano Album *
Latin music Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and ) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America, which encompasses Music of Latin America, Latin America, Music of Spain, Spain, Mu ...
* Music of Texas * Tejano Music Awards


References


Further reading

* *


External links

* {{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 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