They Love Classic Rock in Mexico City. Why?

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It seems to be true. I'm just back from a vacation there, and the predominant "sound on the streets" - along with salsa/bolero/trad mex - is the Doors/Eagles/Billy Joel/etc.......(even AM Gold hits).

Of course I was mostly in the "touristy" areas, but the ratio of tourists to locals seemed preeetttty thin. I'm talking from cafes, street musicians, radio, tv, and most of all - cd vendors.

Assuming I'm not totally OTM (OFF The Mark), how does this happen?

Is it simply major labels pushing C.R. to move back catalog, and thereby "creating" demand? Or do musical tastes in "developing nations" simply lag the 1st world? Maybe hip hop doesn't "capture" their ears?

btw, I was fortunate enough to visit China last year and noticed the same thing - although not as prevalent.

― pheNAM (pheNAM), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 05:08 (twenty-one years ago)

its a cia plot. mindcontrol. subvert the massesses to the greater capitalist good through the sounds of glen fry and the doobie brothers. what else could they be for?

― gallantseagull, Tuesday, 10 August 2004 05:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Most of the mexican dudes at my high school loved metal.

― djdee2005, Tuesday, 10 August 2004 05:27 (twenty-one years ago)

And of course hip-hop.

― djdee2005, Tuesday, 10 August 2004 05:27 (twenty-one years ago)

doesn't a very healthy percentage of the general population (here or in china or in the states or wherever) like that music to begin with?

you're right about the back catalog thing, but then again, you were in mexico fuckin city and due to the sheer size of it you can find almost anything you're looking for (hiphop, electronica, prog, etc.), you just gotta know where to look for it

― manuel (manuel), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 05:33 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah yeah...mind control, postmodernism, colonial domination. but how is it done, and what are the conditions that make it's sucess possible?

And i wasn't "looking" for anything. Although i see the point. I could see how there are masses there who totally hate classic rock (metal included - cuz there was plenty of that), and it was just a matter of the streets i was stomping.

i'm just wondering if there's anyone who's got any behind the scenes info on how the majors peddle their shit there.

― pheNAM (pheNAM), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 05:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Or do musical tastes in "developing nations" simply lag the 1st world?

No offense, but the conceit of this question is ridiculous.

― Vic (Vic), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 06:25 (twenty-one years ago)

there really is no sleight-of-hand or whatever you wanna get at...it's just the music that the previous generations have been weaned on, and as you have 40-year-olds in the states that love the eagles, you're bound to find a lot of them in mexico as well

rock has always existed in mexico ever since national acts covered commercially succesful american rock songs back in the early 60s(specially in mexico city, the place where -everything- stems from in this country, unfortunately, and in tijuana, always receptive to U.S tendencies because it's a 5 minute walk away from the border)...then again, some years back the national rock scene just petered out and save for a handful of bands playing shitty dives it was all about english-sung rock, all the "rock en español" stuff didn't surface til the mid/late eighties in south america and then here, so you're pretty much looking at a good 20 years of exposure to nothing but rock in english

― manuel (manuel), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 06:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Buena respuesta, Manuel.

I'm just wondering what part of Mexico you visited, pheNAM. D.F.?

― Salvador Saca (Mr. Xolotl), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 07:10 (twenty-one years ago)

No Vic it's not conceit, but just a poorly worded question. Obviously I'm not dissing on the musical tastes of Mexicans. I honestly was surprised to have heard so much of it, even though I was already aware that there was a rock scene.

I think what manuel says makes total sense. I guess I was wanting to imagine some current scheme going on whereby, the majors - in order to save their dying industry - are trying to make the easy buck by zapping certain international markets with catalog. But they've always done that, so what the hell was I thinking?

Salvador, I was honeymooning in D.F. for 8 days, then Cancun for 4 days.

― pheNAM (pheNAM), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 12:55 (twenty-one years ago)

So finally the time of replying in ILM has come.....

A couple of things:

THERE IS NO ROCK SCENE IN MEXICO!!!

Besides Billy Joel and Eagles, the top 10 here includes: U2!! damn!!!, of course Stairway to Heaven, DUST IN THE WIND, well the never played enough Hotel California, they (because im mexican but i proudly evolve!) also love madly HORSE WITH NO NAME of America... Toto & Outfield rocks the bars too....

ajajaja.. i love this tread!!! Is all so true...HIP HOP???? UHM????? Oh yeah i think they love 50 cent!!! It was sold out the show....

― chocolate, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

chocolate, you're going to tell us seriously that El Gran Silencio doesn't exist?

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 19:24 (twenty-one years ago)

i can't :(.. they so exist and spread their crap all over.

don't tell me you like it please........

― chocolate, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Super Riddim Internacional was my favorite album of last year. If that music is "crap," then what kind of music do you like?

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 19:34 (twenty-one years ago)

An ex of mine grew up in Mexico City and she said it's all about KISS there.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

music that has a if not a unique sound, they at least has a proposal or mind to do something different. Also for me is important the personality of the sound of a band. El gran silencio most of everything has a HUGE lack of personality since they played a LOT of kind of rythms, which maybe is what you liked it and can be sort of exotic and new for you. For me instead, is like listening a lot of bits of many different latin bands together, without a real proposal.

There is no rock scene in Mexico sorry. there are isolated bands or big hits as el gran silencio, but a scene?

I haven't listening the whole album but i do heard a lot of tracks by them and there is NOTHING from other world plus they sound pretty bad to me.

what kind of music i like? uhm i'm liking too much The Cansecos these days.

― chocolate, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Or do musical tastes in "developing nations" simply lag the 1st world?
No offense, but the conceit of this question is ridiculous.

Is it also ridiculous to note that the (clothing) fashion of a developing country such as Mexico is often a decade or two behind?

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 20:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I think they have a lot of personality, and I don't mind when a group mixes different kinds of music together. That is always my favorite kind of sound. But I do not think that I like El Gran Silencio because they are "exotic" to me -- I just like them because they are fun and they rock and I like music that is fun and rocks.

Maybe Mexico City has no rock scene but Monterrey does.

Yo no se los Cansecos, porque los gustas? Me gusta mucho Inspector, los Tigres del Norte, y Natalia Lafourcade; Bersuit Vergabarat y Los Fabulosos Cadillacs de Argentina, y muchos bandas brasilienos. Y tu? (Perdoneme por mi espanol mal. Yo tengo solo dos anos en colegio.)

And x-post to Oops, but who's to say "behind"?

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 20:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked Mexican rock (and rock en espanol in general) WAY more a decade ago, back when Caifanes, Maldita Vecindad, Fobia, Cafe Tacuba, La Castaneda, Santa Sabina, etc., were all making their best records. I like El Gran Silencio OK (and they're not alone), but I also think the genre has been spinning its wheels for years. Not sure whether that's chocolate's point or not; if so, he's not totally wrong. (Los Fabulosos Cadillacs made their best records a decade ago as well; same with Aterciopelados in Colombia, etc. etc.)

― chuck, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.maquilaportal.com/e_imag/zara.gif

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 20:24 (twenty-one years ago)

sort of i was refering to what chuck saids. Caifanes, Fobia, Maldita, Cafe,
specially Santa Sabina were part of the scene back then not to mention the awsome Cadillacs. Right now is all about copycat them but nobody can really create something near of what "rock en español" movement was. Even Fobia just came out with a new single and they are just not moving foward.
Rock is somewhat stucked in Mexico (whole,not DF) because electronica is having more support, specially in the north.

About los tigres del Norte & Natalia Laforcade, I beg to differ too!!
i mean Los tigres are ok because they just do their thing. this music is not my cup of tea but i do recognize the importance of it as a popular phenomena.. for this reason i don't hink is ok to put in the same level to Natalia, which is a bad ripp off Pink!!!! . And..Los Fabulosos Cadillacs are a whole other story of greatness.

im a chick by the way and Zara is from Spain.

― chocolate, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 20:37 (twenty-one years ago)

B2D, I assume you're insinuating some relativist argument about what is viewed as being behind the times, but it's hard to pull that when you see kids in Latin America wearing "Milk Does More in '84" t-shirts with their Guess jeans.

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 20:42 (twenty-one years ago)

(and labeling a country as being behind the times w/r/t fashion is only insulting if you place value on being au courant)

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Chocolate, I am very sorry that I mis-stated your gender! Anyway, what do you think of Grupo Exterminador? (I like them better than Los Tigres Del Nortes, who I like more or less as much as Bronco, and way more than Los Bukis.) You may cringe, however, when you hear that my favorite Mexican CDs of the year are by Alegrijes Y Rebujos (unless Yolanda Perez, who is actually from L.A., counts. And last year I really liked the Jenni Rivera album, but she is from Long Beach.)

― chuck, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I quit.

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 21:58 (twenty-one years ago)

(I was wondering how you were going to respond to that.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 22:46 (twenty-one years ago)

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