Conjunto Music

Introduction

Conjunto music, sometimes also called Texas- Mexican conjunto, is the traditional social and dance music of Mexican Americans in south Texas. The word conjunto means group in Spanish, but in Texas the name refers to a specific musical genre style with a defined structure, repertoire, style, and social context. Among the most distinctive vernacular Latino folk musical styles developed in the United States, conjunto music stands as an enduring symbol of musical artistry, working class culture, and community life.

Conjunto music and the dance culture that evolved alongside it had a unique, syncretic development in the early 1930s in the hardworking Mexican-American communities of San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley, and has been danced to and played by generations of people who have at the same time produced the distinct cultural geography of south Texas (Arreola; Pen˜ a Texas- Mexican Conjunto). It has continued to evolve as a distinct style and now there are important sub-regional variants in San Antonio, Houston, Corpus Christi, and the Rio Grande Valley. Conjunto music has been studied by academics and the broad outlines of its origins are well known and well documented both in academic books, in documentary film, and of course on recordings (Chulas Fronteras; Songs of the Homeland). It has not yet been considered in terms of sustainability theory and in terms of teaching American culture (Mary, pp. 13-30).

Discussion

Origin

The roots of Tejano and Conjunto music are as widespread and diverse, and run as deep, as the traditions, cultures and people which gave them life. The main root is the music of Mexico with all its regional and class variations, its extraordinary range of songs and dances, and its social and religious musics ranging from the solo voice to the powerful sound of the bandas from Sinaloa to the highly stylized format of today's mariachis. The genteel polished urban orchestras as well as the often untrained rural string bands, the romantic bolero singers, the smooth as well as the gutsy, male and female rural ranchera stars, the vocal trios, the Jarocho harp music of Veracruz, the Huastecan fiddlers and falsetto singers, the danzon and mambo orchestras, and above all the norteño sound of the accordion accompanying the duet vocals from the North, have all contributed to the sound of present day Tejano and Conjunto music.

The musical traditions of the Tejanos of South Texas and Norteños of Northern Mexico have been influenced not only by the mother country, Mexico, but also by their Anglo-American, African-American and immigrant neighbors like the Czechs, Bohemians, and Moravians as well as the Germans and Italians. Industry, especially brewing, in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, was developed in part by German immigrants; and the distributors of German-made accordions aggressively marketed the loud, sturdy little "boom boxes" as far back as the late 1800s.

Since its development as a unique style and tradition in the 1930s, conjunto music has been kept vibrant and distinct where it began, in the cantinas and dance halls, house parties, informal jams, on small radio stations such ...