Music in Mexico: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture

by Alejandro L. Madrid

The complex legacy of Mexico's ethnic past and geographic location have shaped the country and its culture. In Music in Mexico , Alejandro L. Madrid uses extensive fieldwork, interviews with performers, eyewitness accounts of performances, and vivid illustrations to guide students through modern-day music practices. Applying three themes-ethnic identity, migration, and media influences-the text explores the music that Mexicans grow up listening to and shows how these traditions are the result of long-standing transnational dialogues. Packaged with a 40-minute audio CD containing musical examples, the text features numerous listening activities that engage students with the music.

Music in Mexico is one of several case-study volumes that can be used along with Thinking Musically , the core book in the Global Music Series. Thinking Musically incorporates music from many diverse cultures and establishes the framework for exploring the practice of music around the world. It sets the stage for an array of case-study volumes, each of which focuses on a single area of the world. Each case study uses the contemporary musical situation as a point of departure, covering historical information and traditions as they relate to the present.

Visit www.oup.com/us/globalmusic for a list of case studies in the Global Music Series. The website also includes instructional material to accompany each study.

139 pages, Paperback

First published December 14, 2012

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid entry in Oxford University Press' Global Music series, Music in Mexico is a fascinating look at popular music in Mexico from the early days of the country through to the present. Madrid focuses on regional and transnational aspects of Mexican music genres, particularly the relationship that these genres have with Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans in the United States. I also appreciated the way Madrid brought in the contexts of Mexican social and political situations during different decades and eras, and the way he tied in the development of Mexican media.* Finally, I enjoyed learning to parse out and recognize different genres and how they fit into what I would recognize as the typical sounds of Mexican and Latin American music. My only complaint is that the book too often directed the reader to a companion website or to look things up on the web.

*This last point did often result in a certain Wall of Voodoo song going through my head.