If you have ever listened to music by Los Lobos or Los Lonely Boys, you've heard the modern form of Tejano music. Tejano, also called Tex Mex music, has a long and diverse history, bringing together a wide array of influences to result in a signature sound. In recent years, it has undergone a resurgence of popularity, partially inspired by the reintegration of the accordion, a classic Tejano instrument, into the genre.
History
In the mid-eighteenth century, as the Spanish settled the valley surrounding the Rio Grande, Tejano music was born. Early songs incorporated traditional Spanish and Mexican music and chronicled tales of hardship and tragedy. Religious and secular lyrics were common, as was the powerful music of bandas (brass bands).
Types
There are countless types of Tejano music. There are street orchestras and corner string bands as well as bolero poets, ranchera cowboys and cowgirls, syncopated Jarocho sounds popular in Veracruz, fiddlers, mambo bands, danzon performers and, most notably, the popular Conjunto sound, introduced by Narciso Martinez in the 1930s.
Influences
Beyond Mexico's varied musical styles, Tejano music contains the influences of many ethnic groups and cultures. There is African-American, Caribbean and Anglo-American influence in many forms of Tejano. The folk music of immigrants from Czechoslovakia, Germany and Italy also affected the Tejano sound.
Evolution
As Tejano music grew in popularity, it also evolved. The 1950s marked a distinct shift in the Tejano sound, when Isidiro Lopez replaced classical Spanish with contemporary Spanish as well as some English and Spanglish. The next two decades brought superstar orchestras into the limelight such as La Familia and The Latin Breed. By the end of the 1970s, Texan Joe Lopez and his band El Groupo Mazz were incorporating the keyboard into Tejano.
Tejano Today
Joe Lopez y El Groupo Mazz signed with Columbia Records, which had been one of the first major labels to record Tejano music in the 1920s. The group proved so successful that Columbia and other labels began scouting out other acts producing the classic accordion-based Tejano music sound. These days, many Tejano groups, including La Tropa F, Los Chamacos and Eddie Gonzalez y Vida, incorporate the accordion.
