Mostly rock and pop but with a healthy dose of Latin percussion and many other styles, Mana is one of the most popular groups in Mexico. One of their best songs is “Mariposa Traiconera,” an unabashedly unsubtle metaphorical tale of a butterfly flying from flower to flower. It is from their 2005 album Revolucion de Amor, which includes groove-heavy tunes “Ay, Doctor” and “Justicia, Tierra Y Libertad,” featuring Carlos Santana.
Moving farther south, Enanitos Verdes from Argentina has a rocking live show and plenty of cool anthems, such as “Cordillera” with its pan flute/guitar melody, and “Lamento Boliviano,” with a huge chorus that translates as, “I’m here today, drunk and crazy.” Like certain American bands, some of their studio material might turn you off, so head right for live albums En Vivo or Traccion Acustica.
Like many Latin rock bands, Mana and Enanitos Verdes have quite a few songs that are unbearably light. Half of Mana’s Revolucion de Amor is unlistenable, at least to me, if not to some of their millions of fans around the world. So when the song changes and suddenly you feel like you are listening to music in an elevator or dentist’s office, don’t give up hope; the next song should get your head bobbing again.
Rivaling Mana as Mexico’s top rock group, the experimental Café Tacvba has a large catalogue of great songs, like “Eres” and “Las Batallas,” even if few of their northern neighbors have even heard of them. Check out their first, self-titled album and their second album Re, both of which are genre-mixing classics in Mexico. Especially in “Re,” Café Tacvba famously parodies other types of Mexican music, like the sentimental bolero “Esa Noche” or “El Fin de la Infancia,” a banda tune.
Finally, Jarabe de Palo from Spain has enjoyed a long career of churning out classics in Latin pop rock. Their latest album, Orquesta Reciclando from 2009, is a reworking of their biggest hits, like “La Flaca,” “Depende,” and the hippie anthem “Bonito.” The songs have tighter arrangements than the originals, with montuno jam sections and deeper Latin, jazz, and reggae influences.
When thinking of Latin and especially Mexican music it is easy to picture trumpet and accordion laments to lost love, played on one of the two or three Mexican radio stations in your town. What you are hearing is probably one of two kinds of music; if the bass is a tuba and there are lots of horns, it is called “banda,” and if it has more accordion and guitar then it’s probably “norteno.” These two styles are hugely popular in Mexico, especially in the north, where many immigrants in America are from. If you like this music, look for the subgenre of songwriting called “narcocorridos,” which are stories about drug dealers and their brutal, tragic misadventures. One famous group is “Los Tigres del Norte,” who have heavily political material, like “La Granja” (the farm), similar in theme to Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Of course, in Spanish-speaking Latin America there is also mariachi, cumbia, salsa, bachata and so more, much of it originating in the Caribbean. Indigenous pan-flute music, with huge bands in the same style but much more refined than the guys in your local art fair, is played throughout the Andes by groups like Proyeccion from Bolivia. Latin rhythms are even being mixed with hip-hop, most obviously in reggaeton but also more uniquely in groups like Orishas from Cuba and Molotov from Mexico.
When you include Brazil you add at least 10 more distinct and unique subgenres, such as samba, pagode, forro, and the well-known bossa nova, a mix of samba and jazz. There are clear differences separating these more purely Latin styles of music, many of which defined by their corresponding dance steps. Much like what is said about jazz or classical, if you don’t like the music then it will probably all sound the same to you. However, you can sometimes pick out songs which have been reworked by Western musicians, such as “Taj Mahal” by Jorge Ben Jor, ripped off by Rod Stewart in the chorus of “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?”
Bands like Panteon Rococo and Jarabe de Palo, though popular and mainstream, are the leaders of the pack of the Latin equivalent of jamband music: bands made up of top-notch, open-minded and experimental musicians mixing genres and making the audience dance.
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