As Mexican Music Goes Global, There’s Debate Over What to Call It
When Delia Orjuela joined Warner Music Latina in December to GM the label’s newest Regional Mexican music division, she made an executive decision. Her department would be called Música Mexicana — not Regional Mexican, an industry-imposed term for the legacy genre.
While “Regional Mexican” is still widely used across the music industry, a new generation of artists growing the genre’s renewed popularity feel the term has outlived its usefulness and may now be limiting the genre’s reach. “The artists call the music ‘Música Mexicana’ and that’s what we’re going to call the division too,” Orjuela told Billboard at the time. “It’s needed to give those artists a global platform and to plug Warner Music into one of the fastest growing and most exciting genres in the world.”
It’s not clear where “Regional Mexican” — a catch-all term that encompasses banda, norteño, mariachi, grupero and other folk genres — originated but, in the 1980s, Spanish-language radio stations in key Latin markets throughout the Southwest began adopting the format. In 1985, Billboard launched three Latin genre album charts — Latin Pop, Tropical and Regional Mexican. The latter referred to music with “roots in traditional Mexican and Mexican-American sounds” as noted by Billboard’s Enrique Fernández at the time. He wrote: “The revamped format will group albums by genre rather than region, in response to suggestions from the Latin market. Obviously, these classifications represent a compromise which fits the wide – even dizzying – range of Latin genres into three manageable categories.”
Today, as Mexican music increasingly blends with genres from around the world, however, some artists and executives argue that the word “regional” constraints the genre’s reach to only Mexico and Mexican audiences and doesn’t reflect the international following it has gained in recent years. At Spotify, Regional Mexican’s share of listening has grown 10.4% globally in the past year. On YouTube, Christian Nodal and Gera MX’s “Botella Tras Botella,” a country-tinged ranchera with hip-hop beats, was No. 1 in nine Latin American markets and topped YouTube’s Global Top Songs chart last year — the first-ever Regional Mexican track to do so.
“Mexican music has always existed and has always remained strong,” Carin Leon — known for his banda-norteño style and who most recently collaborated with country artist Walker Hayes — said during Latin Music Week last September during a panel discussing the polarizing topic. “As artists, it’s our responsibility to get rid of clichés, stigmas and that mentality that regional Mexican music is for a certain niche of people and that it cannot be mainstream music. It’s clear that our music is no longer regional.”
Others argue the catch-all name has an important history and too much emphasis is being placed on the renaming effort. “The word ‘regional’ has nothing to do with where our music can or can’t reach,” says singer-songwriter Erika Vidrio, who’s penned banda and ranchera anthems such as “Borracho de Amor” and “Quién Es Usted?” “There is an evolution to our genre, but we can’t get rid of a name that represents a culture simply because it’s not working for us anymore. Maybe instead of renaming it, we just start calling genres what they are: banda, norteño, campirano, mariachi.”
As genre-transcending collabs, such as Natanael Cano’s team up with Bad Bunny for the 2019 corrido tumbado “El Diablo (Remix),” continue to rock the boat and make the industry think twice about how its labeling Mexican music, some digital streaming platforms are already dropping the word regional from their playlists or stations.
Spotify created a playlist called Internacional Mexicano in April to provide a place for all collaborations fused with regional Mexican sounds. “Regional Mexican is an industry term that hasn’t evolved at the same pace as its music,” says Spotify’s Antonio Vázquez, U.S. Latin editorial lead. “Its etymology needs to be challenged and questioned regularly in order to expand the vision and perception of its sound and the artists who are part of it. As we encounter new mixtures with genres such as hip-hop, pop and others, we will be motivated to make less use of an umbrella term that fails to encompass such a rich culture in a single word.”
Apple Music, meanwhile, has adopted the term “Música Mexicana” for its streaming radio station. “Música Mexicana means that it no longer comes from specific region of Mexico it comes from various sounds and subgenres,” says Krystina De Luna, Latin music programmer at Apple Music. “If we keep using the word regional in the genre name, we’re giving an incorrect perception to the genre that is in fact already global and the genre is growing, and the name needs to grow with it.”
Changing a genre’s name isn’t common but it’s happened before. Rhythm and Blues, or R&B, was coined in the 1940s replacing the racially insensitive “race music.” Around that time, Billboard also renamed its Race Records chart to the Rhythm & Blues Records chart (now R&B/Hip-Hop). Historically, Billboard has relied on industry, public terminology and discourse when naming new or existing charts where current charts, genre designations or descriptions have shifted over time. Another instance was in 2020 when Republic Records banned the term “urban,” which dates to the 1970s, within the label calling it outdated. Subsequently, the Grammys renamed its best urban contemporary album to best progressive R&B album. However, in the Latin music realm, the term urbano is preferred by artists, further underscoring that there is no one set way to identify a genre.
If Regional Mexican was to be renamed, “it’s something that will take time and will require the entire industry to come together and figure this out,” adds Krystina.
That’s what Promotores Unidos USA’s newly-launched six-member committee focused on this issue is trying to do: lead conversations with key industry players including radio executives and Latin Grammy president Manuel Abud, who took the role in May. “The conversations with the new Latin Grammys president have been fruitful and we look forward to continuing working with him while also being more active on our end, having more presence at industry events,” says Abel DeLuna, member of the veteran Mexican music promoter association and founder of Luna Management (he’s also Krystina’s father). “Participation is key and if we don’t speak up, no one will listen.”
The Latin Grammys still have a Regional Mexican field that houses breakout categories such as best banda album, best tejano album and best norteño album. “Considering the recommendations of our membership, record labels, screening and nomination review committees, in reference to the Regional Mexican Field, we have received various recommendations which are going to be included in this year’s agenda,” The Latin Recording Academy said in a statement to Billboard. That agenda is scheduled to be released in the spring.
But even as conversations lead to some change and space for flexibility, others are a bit more reluctant to let go of the term. “I’m not totally against it but regional explains the rich sonority that we have in Mexico,” says Pepe Garza, programming director at L.A.’s Que Buena 105.5/94.3 FM station and founder of Premios de la Radio. “If those that are trying to change the genre’s name want to gain more territory or respect, then that can be done by doing good music, not by changing its name.”
