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Why The unstoppable appeal of Peso Pluma and the Regional Mexican music scene

May 6, 2023
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The peso pluma entered its own era.

He is the future that regional Mexican music labels have been dreaming of for the past four or five years. As other artists in the genre teetered on the brink of a breakthrough, he would be the first of the superstars that labels steadily banked on corridos tumb ados, corrido trap, and currents taking historically marginalized genres of modern guitar and horn-driven music into the mainstream.

Over the past few months, the 23-year-old singer from Jalisco, Mexico, whose raspy voice makes him sound more like Boomer than Zoomer with Edgar Mullet, has made music history milestone after milestone. And if she’s not on your radar yet, it’s probably only a matter of time.

His duet with the group Eslabón Armado, Ella Baila Sola, became the first Mexican music song to enter the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 with over 24 million streams. It also reached number 1 on the Billboard Global 200.

He was also a monster on Spotify. Peso Pluma, who also goes by Doble P, ranks as the world’s most streamed artist on the platform at No. 5, with five of his collaborations in the top 50 global chart.

He and his diamond Spider-Man necklaces donned a Coachella audience when they joined singer Becky G on the main stage a few weeks ago. The two hum to each other as they sing the break-up song “Chanel.” And last week, Mexican American fans tweeted about being on the verge of tears as she performed Ela Baila Sola’s solo on The Tonight Show – the first regional Mexican musical artist to perform on the show’s stage.

In other words, the young star está en el fuego.

From construction workers to headliners
Technically, the peso pluma is not really a peso pluma. Rather, he is one of three members of the group that makes up Peso Pluma, along with his cousin. The name translates to Featherweight, which he said described him as a bunch of skinny boys when they first got together. He has now adopted the moniker for himself as his popularity exploded and more listeners mistakenly combined the two. seems to be

People tell me that and I just react, he said on the podcast Abstraction.

His real name is Hassan Emilio Cabande Laiza, and just a few years ago, he worked as a waiter at an Italian restaurant in New York’s Little Italy. Later, he earned about $200 a day as a construction worker in Los Angeles.

It’s not hard labor, it’s working under the hot sun, he said.

Now, he’s about to embark on a US tour, hitting more than 20 cities across the country

The rags-to-riches aspect is not lost on him.

A lot of my success is based on sacrifice, discipline, and stepping on the gas pedal. That kind of hustler mentality is ingrained in me and I think, coming from this genre, that discipline is our strength,” he said recently. diversity

He added: We love to work, we love to be in the studio and we love to keep doing new things because we know that nowadays music is consumed at the moment that’s not lost on me.

A Gen Z spin on traditional Mexican music
Like many kids who dream of being famous, Peso Pluma says he first dreamed of being a soccer star. But when it became clear that wouldn’t pan out, he turned to music.

Raised in hip-hop and reggaeton, he wanted to be a rapper. But, he said, he quickly realized that his voice simultaneously gravelly and nasal wasn’t suited to those styles of music. So he joins a new wave of Mexican Gen Xers who have returned to the traditional country music of their parents and grandparents, putting their own spin on norteños, corridos, and cumbias.

He was born in 1999! Of course, his music is going to have that effect. How could it not? Anita Herrera, an artist, curator, and cultural consultant based in Los Angeles and Mexico City

Herrera noted that hip-hop’s influence doesn’t end in music. Unlike their predecessors, many of the new waves of nuevo corrido performers have ditched the traditional boats and sombreros. Instead, they sport bucket hats, swap silky Versace button-downs for Versace T-shirts, and wear Nike Air Force Ones or Jordans.

Herrera was at Coachella where Peso Pluma and Becky G sang their song together.

Everybody loved it, he said. All of this speaks to us. To all the first-generation Mexican kids who are part of the diaspora and grew up here in the U.S. or in the U.S. and Mexico. To everyone who grew up listening to this music and having fun because it wasn’t cool. Now, There’s no denying that.

El Momento Mexicano
This moment, and the skyrocketing fame of the peso pluma, encapsulated a significant cultural shift. The style of singing, long considered paisa or choti — both derogatory terms for rural Mexicans — is now accepted as somewhat modern, Herrera said.

While Puerto Rico and Colombia have benefited from the global embrace of reggaeton over the past two decades, the spotlight is finally shifting to Mexico, he said.

Este es el momento del Mexicano, Herrera declared.

And for proof of that, look no further than the Spotify global hit a cumbia-reggaeton hybrid from un x100to, Bad Bunny, and regional Mexican group Grupo Frontera charting at No. 1.

This genre has always been popular in Mexico and the Mexican diaspora. Bands like Los Tigres del Norte have been selling out stadiums in the US for decades. And in states like California and Texas, as well as the Mexican states along the border, there is a constant crop of new artists who have found significant success. Still, the music and the scene that goes with it, the music industry and companies try to reach the pockets of Latino consumers.

In his jobs as a consultant with music labels, marketing agencies, and clothing and alcohol brands, Herrera said he’s always been put off when it comes to recommending the inclusion of regional Mexican artists in campaigns or live events.

They didn’t fall under what Latinos thought, he explained. For them, it was very low… although that’s where the culture is and that’s where the spending power is.

Now, after the quantitative success of artists like Peso Pluma, Natanel Cano, and Fuerza Regida, the same companies are clamoring to work with artists, he said.

TikTok is bringing new audiences to regional Mexican music
Felipe Garrido, a Peruvian economist based in the United States, agrees that the genre’s massive success has been years in the making.

Garrido is a huge fan of Mexico’s regional music and has been tracking the explosion of the Corridos Tumbados subgenre across streaming music platforms including YouTube and TikTok. In an April analysis with Chartmetrics, Garrido found that Natanel Cano, Junio H, and Fuerza Regida — three of the genre’s most popular artists — had increased their combined total Spotify monthly listeners. Together, their audience grew from 1.6 million in early 2019 to 54.1 million in 2023, a compound annual growth rate of 142%.

Part of their success, and the peso pluma, stems from their presence on TikTok, Garrido said. According to his research, Garrido says 60% of TikTok users, who are primarily genres, discover new music on TikTok rather than anywhere else.

They turn to Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube after discovering new music on the platform, he added.

Another important factor in the exponential growth of the genre is the willingness of artists to collaborate with each other, even across music labels. Only one of Peso Pluma’s six hit singles charted on Spotify’s Global Top 50. The others, at Nos. 2, 3, 10,17, and 19, are all with other rising stars.

It helps them a lot. That pushes them to be included in the playlists of most [music streaming] services,” which is another way to introduce new listeners to music, Garrido said.

Going global with it
All the trappings of fame — money, girls, cars — are great, says Peso Pluma in the abstract. But working with all these people that I’ve admired for so long is the coolest part of what’s happening now, he said.

And he’s determined to bring others along for the ride.

They call it regional Mexican music, but how is that possible? he asked during a recent interview. People are listening to Corridor in Japan too!

I want to get rid of the label, he added, explaining that the genre transcends regionalism Look how far we’ve come.

He resists the idea that there’s room for only one Spanish-language music genre – eg, reggaeton – for fans to love.

In a mix of metaphors one about the sun and the other about the cake he added, The sun shines for everyone and everyone can decide how much they want to eat. https://www.npr.org/