After discussing drug cartels at length, watching Sin nombre, reading the first few pages of "Narcocorridos and the Cultural Persona of the Narcotrafficker," and reading the below comparisons to US rap and hip hop, I felt fairly prepared for the audio clips we listened to, and fairly sure of my preconception of what they would sound like. I was so wrong!
The way the Narcocorrido/Hip Hop Parallel appears to me is that both musical forms arose out of a subculture with a need to augment an establishing image. (Maybe this is not far off from what Edberg, and Christine below, discusses about creating what they sell.) For the American urban poor, and particularly a subculture within that centers around gangs and drug culture, the establishing image was one of informal, but very real power over and in opposition to legitimate authorities. Rap and hip hop developed along with a need to justify (we grew up poor and society treated us badly) and exert (we have guns and we've never been afraid to use them) this authority. Not only do the lyrics explain this perspective, but the sound of the music is usually aggressive and tough.
So how, when it seems that the narcotraficante culture has such a similar image to augment, does their music come out so radically differently?
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