A product of old Spanish ballad forms (the romanza and the decima), corridos are Mexican/Mexican-American ballads that offer a realistic portrayal of life to its performers. In staying realistic, Wald noted, topics can be seedy or coarse and the most popular tended to be "violent romantic engagements." Moving forward, Wald mentions that corrido is more popular than most would think, with many of its artists being signed to major record labels. As might be expected, the genre that focuses on outlaws and bandits has been accused of leading youth astray. Still it is a popular genre that has as much power as the newspaper.
Discussion Question: What differences in ideology or opinion exist in people who get their news from music (corrido and other genres) versus those who primarily get news from sources with which we are more accustomed? How does drawing conclusions from corrido color the conclusions one draws?
Monday, April 20, 2009
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