music of mexico

I'm standing in a beautiful white stucco room edged with dark mahoghany and awash with pale marble floors. A ceiling fan silently circles, rhythmically forging invisible wakes through the yielding air. Weightless white linen curtains flutter gently in the Mexican breeze, framing the open doorway to the spacious balcony lining my entire three-room suite. I hear music. The classy resort at which I'm staying - hoping to cater to the tastes of wealthy, 'edgy' tourists - plays a hip techno medley of popular US music from speakers lining the four-tiered pool, swim-up bar, and three hot tubs. This leads to constant bumping bass remixes of Jewel's "Hands", Sean Paul's "Temperature", and various other "party vacation songs" playing relentlessly in the background. Mexican culture trying to adapt ambient music to American tastes? Not a good idea.


I'm lying on an ivory cushion on the beach of Cabo San Lucas at night, watching the stars twinkle and the Milky way swirl above my head. The vast Pacific Ocean faces me. The rhythmic swell and wash of waves curling along the pale sand lulls me almost to sleep. Dizzily dazed with wonder, I watch Mars wink knowingly at me and Orion stretch luxuriously over the space of a million light-years. I hear music. Farther along the beach, lit by flickering firelight against a backdrop of hotel construction, is a group of Mexican teenagers. They've driven their car onto the beach and are listening to a local radio station at full blast while smoking various cigarettes/joints. The music is fast-paced Hispanic rap, complete with drums and banjos. The lyrics consist mostly of a string of slang obscenities and drug/sex references.....maybe mainstream Mexican music isn't so different from that of the United States after all.


I'm walking along a narrow street in San Jose, Mexico. The melodic lilt of spoken Spanish wafts from shady tienditas and tiny chintzy tourist booths. Americans obviously are a huge source of revenue for the masses of low-income Mexicans that fight to feed their families along this hot, beautiful, glittering coast. I hear music. A toothless old man with skin like singed paper sits in a plastic chair in front of a little jewelry store with a harmonica. He tunelessly blows a few bars, then stops at intervals and warbles a mostly unintelligible line or two, then goes back to blowing. He seems to be one of those 'crazy old grandpas' that the rest of the family is taking care of in his last few years of life. He looks hopelessly content to be sitting in the sun, making music and propositioning strangers to buy jewelry from his store.

The music here is more similar to US music than I originally imagined. Yes, it sounds vastly different...but the messages are the same. Music all over the world conveys the same universally human emotions. From the poor singing on the street to earn a few coins, to rebellious teenagers playing popular club music as a soundtrack for illicit mischief-making, music plays the same roles in lives across the world. Everywhere I go...I hear music.