corrido
A Mexican narrative ballad form dating to the 19th century, traditionally telling stories of heroes, outlaws, battles, and social injustice.
In Depth
The corrido is a strophic ballad form that serves as a musical newspaper and oral history tradition in Mexican culture. Its roots lie in the Spanish romance tradition, adapted to document the people and events of the Mexican frontier, revolution, and daily life. Classic corridos of the Mexican Revolution celebrated figures like Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa, while border corridos told stories of migration, smuggling, and cultural conflict.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the narcocorrido subgenre — celebrating drug traffickers — became hugely popular and intensely controversial, with several narcocorrido singers murdered in apparent cartel-related violence. More recently, corridos tumbados have blended traditional corrido storytelling with trap, hip-hop, and urbano influences, creating a massive crossover phenomenon. Artists like Peso Pluma, Natanael Cano, and Junior H have made corridos tumbados one of the most streamed genres globally, bringing Mexican regional music to unprecedented international audiences.
Corridos tumbados — the modern hip-hop-inflected variant — have become so globally popular that Peso Pluma became the most-streamed Latin artist on Spotify in 2023, bringing Mexican regional music to audiences who had never heard a traditional corrido.