Traditional Genres of Mexican Music - Traditional Folk - By Types of Musical Forms - Ranchera

Ranchera

Ranchera is a genre of the traditional Mexican music originally sung by only one performer with a guitar. It dates to the years of the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century. It later became closely associated with the mariachi groups which evolved in Jalisco.

Ranchera today is also played by norteño (Conjunto) or banda. Drawing on rural traditional folk music, ranchera developed as a symbol of a new national consciousness in reaction to the aristocratic tastes of the period. Traditional rancheras are about love, patriotism or nature. Rhythms can be in 3/4, 2/4 or 4/4, reflecting the tempo of, respectively, the waltz, the polka, and the bolero. The most popular ranchera composers include Lucha Reyes, Cuco Sánchez, Antonio Aguilar, Vicente Fernandez and José Alfredo Jiménez, who composed many of the best-known rancheras, with compositions totaling more than 1000 songs, making him one of the most prolific songwriters in the history of western music. The word ranchera was derived from the word rancho because the songs originated on the ranches and in the countryside of rural Mexico. Rancheras that have been adapted by conjuntos, or norteño bands from northern Mo and the southwestern US, are sometimes called norteños, from the Spanish word for northern. The most relevant performers are Lola Beltrán, Chavela Vargas, María de Lourdes, Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete, Javier Solís, Lucha Villa, Vicente Fernández, Pepe Aguilar, and Alejandro Fernández.