Not the style of music, but the omnipresence – almost any radio station that specializes in Regional Mexican music has his picture prominently displayed.
Unlike Elvis, he didn’t die of a drug overdose on a toilet – he is now 76 years old, and had a singing career starting around 1960.
Perhaps Jaymar (or others) can fill in some of the details about his career and the influence on Mexican culture. His trademark used to be outrageously large elaborately decorated hats.
Vicente Fernandez is more to Mexicans than Elvis to us. He is more of the John Wayne of Mexico as his career spans almost 60 years in movies and as a performer of Mexican “rancheras.” I once heard a friend of mine in San Antonio say that when he hears Fernandez he feels an electrical charge all over him. He is adored by his fans similar to the worship another great Mexican performer named Jorge Negrete had back in the dark ages of TV and movies. Negrete died back in 1953 and every so often his music is still being played.
Fernandez has three sons and only one, Alejandro, decided to pursue his father’s career. Alejandro is a favorite of the younger generation and promises to become the star his father is.
Are there any central themes that run through ranchera music? Is its popularity more in Northern Mexico or would you also hear it in Mexico City?
Once upon a time I had added Canada and Mexico to the database because the FCC has responsibility for administering agreements to limit cross border influences. The Mexican AM stations were quite a mixed bag – many seemed to just originate in a house in the middle of nowhere.
In some border towns – San Diego especially, the Mexican stations (they begin with X) are the dominant stations – broadcasting in English and controlled by Americans, but not regulated by the FCC.
Due to general lack of interest, after about six months I deleted them all. Just keeping the US stations current is an overwhelming job
Ranchera music is basically Mexican country music. The performers usually wear their equivalence of a cowboy outfit with highly adorned (and very expensive) costumes , high boots, a very large typical Mexican hat, and in many cases a couple of six-shooters strapped on the sides. Their lyrics primarily deal with rural issues and tend to be in a story form. This music genre is very, very popular not just in Mexico but throughout the Spanish-speaking world, with a lot of locals in those various countries copying the style as well as the costumes. The stories are sprinkled with what they call “machismo.”
Oh no, not music that admires men for being masculine! We can’t have that in America!
You could say that Rancheras are the National Folkloric or Country Music of Mexico, just as Tangos are Argentinean, and Huapangos from Bolivia and the central portion of South America, Danzas from PR, Salsa from Cuba.Now, some of these have crossed borders in the Spanish world so it is not odd to hear a local genre being played in another country. The romantic Boleros I believe originated in Spain and came to the Americas around the end of the 19th Century.
Although the National folkloric Music of Spain is the Pasodoble, of Venezuela it’s Joropo, and RepDom is Merengue. Each music has it on peculiar cadence or rhythm that easily identifies it.
I’m sure you know this history, and can probably flesh it out a bit. Until US newspapers whipped the United States into a frenzy, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines (and a few other places) were still controlled by Spain. After the US warship Maine blew up in Havana Harbor (Remember the Maine!), Progressive Republican Teddy Roosevelt rode the cavalry up San Juan Hill and kicked the Spanish out of the Western Hemisphere. Cuba was given independence and Puerto Rico was not. We occupied the Philippines until WW 2 started and there is resentment about that still.
The previous was reprinted from Rocky & Bullwinkle’s fractured history.
LOL. I like your source for history. You should try Mr. Peabody’s also.
Speaking of history, it was amusing to me that Vice President elect Mike Pence decided to take it right to the enemies in New York. He showed up at “Hamilton”, a broadway play about Alexander Hamilton. After the antifederalists elected president Thomas Jefferson, VP Aaron Burr and Federalist papers co-Author and banker Alexander Hamilton were mortal enemies. The tie in the electoral college was what motivated the writing of the 12th amendment.
So the sitting Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr had a duel with Alexander Hamilton. The cover story was it was over a woman, but I doubt that.
So the audience and the cast went ballistic. How dare the soon to be VP crash their little play about the VP killing his enemy! The symbolism is priceless.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/us/mike-pence-hamilton.html
Maybe Trump should invite him to sing at the inauguration