Tejano music, also called Tex-Mex music, is a style of music that combines American and Mexican influences. It started in northern Mexico as a type of regional Mexican music called norteño.
In the late 20th century, Tejano music became more widely known because of popular performers and groups such as Mazz, Selena, La Mafia, Ram Herrera, La Sombra, Elida Reyna, Elsa García, Laura Canales, Intocable, Jay Perez, Emilio Navaira, Esteban "Steve" Jordan, Shelly Lares, David Lee Garza y Los Musicales, Jennifer Peña, and La Fiebre.
Origins
The development of early Tejano music was shaped by the combination of traditional styles, such as the corrido and mariachi, with European musical forms like the polka brought by German, Polish, and Czech settlers in the late 1800s. Around the start of the 20th century, Tejano musicians began using the accordion, which became a popular instrument for amateur musicians in Texas and Northern Mexico. Small musical groups called orquestas, made up of local musicians, became common at community dances. Early Tejano music showed creativity in both musical style and themes that challenged the ideas of the dominant culture.
At the start of the 20th century, Tejanos were mostly working in ranching and farming. Their only form of entertainment often came from traveling musicians who visited ranches and farms. These musicians used simple instruments like the flute, guitar, and drum, and sang songs passed down from earlier generations in Mexico. One of these musicians, Lydia Mendoza, was among the first to record Spanish-language music as part of RCA’s efforts to expand its music recordings in the 1920s. These traveling musicians often performed in areas where German Texans and other European settlers lived.
Narciso Martínez, known as the "Father of Conjunto Music," helped define the accordion’s role in conjunto music. He learned songs from German, Polish, and Czech brass bands and adapted them for the accordion. In the 1930s, Martínez improved his accordion skills by using a two-button row accordion. Around the same time, he formed a group with a musician named Santiago Almeida who played the bajo sexto.
With the accordion, drums, and bajo sexto, Tejanos developed a unique sound they could call their own. In the 1940s, Valerio Longoria added lyrics to conjunto music, helping Tejanos take ownership of this new style.
In the 1950s, Isidro Lopez changed the Tejano sound by using Tex-Mex language instead of traditional Spanish, creating a newer style that moved closer to today’s sound. In the 1960s and 1970s, groups like Little Joe and The Latinaires (later La Familia), The Latin Breed, Luis Ramirez Y su Latin Express, and others added orchestral elements to Tejano music, influenced by pop and R&B styles. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, new groups like Espejismo from McAllen, led by Rudy Valdez, and musicians from Brownsville, such as Joe Lopez, Jimmy Gonzalez, and Mazz, introduced keyboards to Tejano music, inspired by the disco sound of the time. During this period, La Mafia became the first Tejano band to perform rock-style shows for their generation.
History
Tejano musicians such as Flaco Jiménez and Esteban Steve Jordan continued Martinez's tradition of playing the accordion skillfully. By the 1980s, they became regular presences on the international World Music scene.
In the 1950s and 1960s, rock and roll and country music gained popularity. Electric guitars and drums were added to conjunto music groups. Performers like Little Joe included elements of soul and R&B music, as well as themes related to Chicano identity. Popular musicians and groups of the 1960s included Little Joe, Estevan Jordan, The Royal Jesters, Romances, Carlos Guzman, Joe Bravo, Dimas Three, Chuck & the Dots, the Sky Tones, the Broken Hearts, the Volumes, and Sunny Ozuna and the Sunliners.
The 1960s and 1970s brought new styles of Chicano music and the first La Onda Tejana radio broadcasters. Paulino Bernal, a Tejano musician and producer, discovered and introduced a norteño band called Los Relampagos del Norte, featuring Ramón Ayala and Cornelio Reyna. He recorded them on his record company, Bego Records. Ayala continues to be successful in both the United States and Mexico. Reyna had a successful career as an actor and solo singer. He returned to the Tejano music scene and had a major hit with his collaboration with the Tejano band La Mafia. He performed frequently until his death. During the 1960s and 1970s, early La Onda Tejana radio broadcasters such as Marcelo Tafoya (first recipient of the Tejano Music Awards "Lifetime Achievement Award"), Ramiro "Snowball" de la Cruz, Mary Rodriguez, Rosita Ornelas, and Luis Gonzalez began broadcasting. Soon after, the Davila family of San Antonio joined them. Support from these radio broadcasters in central Texas helped promote La Onda.
In 1987, Gloria Anzaldúa wrote:
La Onda's popularity grew in the early to mid-1980s as Tejano music blended with other styles. Songs like Espejismo's "Somos Los Dos," written and sung by Rudy Valdez, and La Sombra's mix of English and Spanish became popular. As the 1990s began, La Mafia, who had already won more than a dozen Tejano Music Awards, created a new Tejano style that became a standard. They toured widely starting in 1988 and helped open doors for artists like Selena Quintanilla, Emilio Navaira, Jay Perez, and Mazz. Electronic instruments and synthesizers became more common in Tejano music, and the genre appealed to fans of both country and rock music who spoke both English and Spanish. After Selena Quintanilla's death, her music gained attention from a wider American audience. Known as "The Queen of Tejano Music," she was the first female Tejano artist to win a Grammy. Her album Ven Conmigo was the first Tejano album by a female artist to receive a gold certification.
Since the end of the 20th century, Tejano music has seen fewer radio stations dedicated to it in the United States. One reason is the success of the group Intocable. As a result, many radio stations, especially in Texas, have shifted to playing Norteño/banda music. This change has led to the rise of Tejano internet radio.
At the start of the 21st century, Tejano music's influence has declined due to less promotion, the popularity of Regional Mexican and other Latin music, the retirement or breakup of well-known performers, and the lack of new artists. Many Tejano musicians who were active during the 1990s, when the genre was most popular, now perform less frequently and receive less attention. However, today's Tejano music, which is more focused on pop styles than its earlier roots, remains a regional musical tradition in Tejano communities and other parts of the United States.
Development
Tejano music developed in Texas. While it has influences from Mexico and other Latin American countries, the main influences come from the United States. The types of music that make up Tejano include folk music, roots music, rock, R&B, soul music, blues, country music, and Latin influences such as norteño, mariachi, and Mexican cumbia. Tejano musicians like Emilio and Raulito Navaira, David Lee Garza, and Jay Perez show the influence of rock and roots music.
Tejano music has several categories of music and bands. Three major categories are conjunto, orchestra/orquesta, and modern. A conjunto band includes instruments such as accordion, bajo sexto, electric bass, and drums. Examples of conjunto bands are Esteban "Steve" Jordan and The Hometown Boys. An orchestra/orquesta includes bass, drums, electric guitar, synthesizer, and a brass section, which is important for its sound. Examples of modern bands include Ruben Ramos and the Texas Revolution, The Liberty Band, The Latin Breed, La Mafia, Selena Quintanilla, La Sombra, Elida Reyna y Avante, Los Palominos, David Lee Garza y Los Musicales, Shelly Lares, Jay Perez, and Mazz.
The Mexican influence on Tejano music has made its sound more similar to norteño music. The accordion, which was once a secondary instrument in Tejano music, is now considered essential. Today, groups like Sunny Sauceda, Eddie Gonzalez, and La Tropa F highlight the accordion in their music.
Music industry
After World War II, local and regional music companies began recording and selling Tejano music. Important reasons for the growth of Tejano music include a more varied American culture and better job and education chances for Mexican American musicians, which allowed them to perform and record music for people in their area. In the 1940s, early forms of Tejano music, such as female duets and orquesta tejana, later helped create the Tex-Mex style of the 1950s and La Onda Chicana (The Chicano Wave) of the 1960s. The increasing popularity of accordion-based music and records made locally directly led to the need for Tejano music producers and record labels.
Music companies like Discos Ideal, started in San Benito, Texas in 1947, and Freddie Records, started in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1970, are well known for making conjunto style music. Freddie Records was named after its founder, Freddie Martinez, Sr., and has continued to play an important role in producing Tejano music into the 21st century.
Influence
The term "Tex-Mex" is also used in American rock and roll music to describe performers who are influenced by Tejano music. These performers include the Sir Douglas Quintet, the Texas Tornados (which features Flaco Jiménez, Freddy Fender, Augie Meyers, and Doug Sahm), Los Super Seven, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, Los Lobos, Latin Playboys, Louie and the Lovers, The Champs, Ry Cooder, Calexico, Los Lonely Boys, The Mavericks, Son de Rey, and Selena y Los Dinos.
Texan accordion music has influenced players of the Basque instrument called trikitixa.
A modern Swedish-American composer named Sven-David Sandström has included Tejano music styles in his classical compositions.
Tejano and conjunto music are very popular. Organizations like the Guadalupe Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas, hold festivals every year to celebrate this music. These events have featured famous musicians such as Flaco Jiménez, conjunto groups from around the world, and modern artists.
Tejano music female singers of the late 1980s and 1990s
Many Tejano female singers from the late 1980s and 1990s are not well known because they received little media attention. At the same time, other singers like Selena, Laura Canales, Elsa García, Elida Reyna, and Shelly Lares became famous because they had talented voices and worked with skilled musicians, producers, and recording studios that promoted them. Other Tejano female singers, such as Lynda V (and the Boys) and Letty Guval, also made important contributions to Tejano music during the 1990s, but their stories are not widely shared.
Lynda V (and the Boys) started a band in 1988 and signed a record deal with Bob Griever and CBS Records in 1990. In 1992, she signed a contract with Capitol EMI, a major record company. The band continued performing together until 2005. Letty Guval began her music career in 1994 after singing with the University of Texas Pan American Mariachi Band in Edinburg for two years. She signed a record deal with Wicker Records in 1994 and later signed a four-year contract with Fonovisa-Platino Records. Her career was brief, but she became the first female Tejano artist invited to perform at the White House during the Clinton administration in 1994.
In an article, Kelly James from the South Bend Tribune wrote, "Born in California, raised in Mexico, and educated in Texas, Guval uses her experiences from different cultures in her music." In his book, Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr. wrote about Lynda V and Letty Guval, stating, "EMI Latin had five relatively new female acts: Stephanie Lynn, Elsa García, Lynda V. and the Boys, Agnes Torres of the New Variety Band, and Delia y Culturas." He also noted that Letty Guval recorded a ranchera song called "Sentimiento" in the mid-1990s. At key moments in the song, she briefly added banda rhythms.
Both Lynda V and Letty Guval performed across the United States and Mexico. In the 1990s, they performed at events like the Tejano Music Awards and the Johnny Canales Show.