By many accounts, Mexico City, DF, is the largest city in the world, in terms of both numbers and density of population, and by any account, it’s a furiously fascinating place. It has what New York City has multiplied many times, with an unmistakable energy that overpowers everything. In Mexican political history, it’s seen many major turning points, with beginnings and endings of world revolutions, assassinations and deals gone sour, along with so many moments of spectacular hope. For anyone from here, it holds a special place in the heart, and for anyone who visits, it has a way of imprinting itself on the consciousness.
Like any city that has the best of everything, including food from a multitude of culinary traditions, stunning hotels that offer the best of local and international hospitality, and a music scene that is absolutely breathtaking and breathless at the same moment. On any given night, one can hear music from many decades and many styles, and the best of the rock bands take in the history of Mexican music and create new forms that speak to a population that creates new identities as fast as they create new words. Music and language are married in rocanrol, and it’s as harmonious and as discordant as the best marriages can be.
The term “rocanrol” came into Mexican music in the 1970s, and probably with Alex Lora and El Tri. That band started in 1968, one of the most tumultuous times in a city that’s seen its share, and they began a method of making music that became a pattern for the bands that followed. However, it could be argued that their ability to take older Mexican forms and remix them with contemporary European and U.S. music is part of a long tradition in Mexican music in general.
That they’ve been playing for 40 plus years speaks to the tenacity of the musicians, and also to the chilangos who boosted them in the city and into the world. Maldita Vecindad picked up the cue in the 80s, combining old forms, El Tri’s reinventions, and added ska and punk to the mix. This paved the way for Cafe Tacuba at the end of the 80s, and they’ve become something of a major voice in Mexico City music , but also enjoy a huge fan base all over the world. Here, the fans cross linguistic barriers to listen to a music that is simultaneously very traditional and very post-modern, and is always reinventing itself, in the tradition of the city.
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