Regional Mexican

Regional Mexican music, also known as Música Mexicana, is an umbrella term encompassing the regional subgenres of Mexico's folk music and its derivatives from the Southwestern United States. It is characterized by its stylistic diversity, with each subgenre representing and originating from a specific region of Mexico. Its roots date back to the 16th–19th centuries, emerging from a fusion of Indigenous, African, Spanish, and other European instruments and musical traditions.

Major subgenres include mariachi, banda, norteño, corridos, Tejano, duranguense, and sierreño. Mariachi, which originated in 18th-century Jalisco, achieved international recognition during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema through figures such as Pedro Infante and Vicente Fernández. The 1990s saw the rise of grupero and the so-called "Golden Age of Tejano", led by Selena. In the 21st century, duranguense gained prominence, while the early 2020s were defined by the global resurgence of corridos tumbados, a contemporary fusion incorporating elements of trap and hip-hop, and unprecedented global growth driven by recording artists such as Peso Pluma, Natanael Cano, Grupo Frontera, and Carín León.

Within the music industry of the United States, regional Mexican music became a dominant format on Spanish-language radio, resonating strongly with the Mexican American population. This expansion has been marked by record-breaking streaming figures and chart success on platforms such as Billboard, where the genre has regularly placed songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Many different subgenres of regional Mexican have their origins in the 16th to 19th centuries. Indigenous, African, and Spanish instruments and styles mixed together to create these genres of music. For example, mariachi originated in the state of Jalisco around the 18th century. The mariachi genre is distinguished by its use of the vihuela, guitarrón, trumpet, and violin.

Other genres developed later in the 20th century. An example being the ranchera. Ranchera is a traditional style of regional Mexican formed during the Mexican Revolution. Today, it can be performed in the vast majority of regional Mexican subgenres in several different time signatures.

The popularity of regional Mexican music, increased internationally from the 1940s to 1960s with the addition of the many regional Mexican soundtracks used in films. Pedro Infante was one of many who helped popularize the genre in the 1950s during the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. Regional Mexican boleros, specifically boleros accompanied with mariachi, were also popular around this time. Beginning in the 1940s, regional Mexican music gained popularity in Chile through the use of radio and television.

In the 1970s, the mariachi genre and ranchera style began to increasingly spread into the United States. Many popular mariachi singers during this time include Vicente Fernández and Antonio Aguilar.

In the 1980s, Mexican singer-songwriter Juan Gabriel popularized the mariachi ballad along with Angélica María. Musical groups like Ramón Ayala y Los Bravos del Norte, Los Cadetes de Linares, and Los Invasores de Nuevo León from the northeastern states of Mexico helped expand the popularity of norteño music. During the 1980s, the different but similar genres of music were grouped under the term "regional Mexican" and grew in popularity in the United States, due to higher concentrations of Mexican population. In 1984, Billboard released a Regional Mexican Albums chart in their magazine. Vicente Fernández's album Por Tu Maldito Amor (1989) became the longest running number one regional Mexican album of the decade in the United States.