cajun
Tejano
Zydeco
oldtime
Mariachi

anyone familiar with any of these genres?

grtz
Kev1n

kev1n said:

Mariachi is a type of spanish music. Usually involves a few Mexican/Spanish guys with a guitar and maraccas. It's quite traditional sounding.

Why don't you browse GENRES on www.allmusic.com ? They have an extended range of descriptions AND can point you to the best artists in that particular genre...

From all music;
Zydeco and Cajun are the premier cultural expressions of the spirited and hardy people of southwest Louisiana. While the two styles have some similarities, they are also quite different.

Cajun music as we know it today can be traced back to early Acadian, French, Creole, and Anglo-Saxon folk songs. These early ballads and lullabies — typically concerned with troubles and hard times — were often sung a cappella. For the most part, they were performed at home and passed down orally from generation to generation; however, the singers of these traditional songs were eventually accompanied by simple instrumentation.

Cajun music is, of course, meant for dancing — one-step, two-step, and waltzes. Traditionally, the Cajun dance ("Fais-do-do" in Cajun) was the major social function in Cajun society. The principal instrument in Cajun music is the diatonic accordion, preferably in the key of C. Although it is a German instrument, the Cajun people adopted it in the 1870s. To a lesser degree, the fiddle is also a favorite instrument in Cajun music. Early Cajun bands featured both of these instruments, as well as a triangle to keep the rhythm. Acoustic guitars were added to the lineup by 1920, then, three decades later, steel, electric guitars, and sometimes drums. Although Cajun music has changed somewhat over the years and has been influenced by other styles of music — notably country and blues — it has remained a distinctive style.

The first Cajun record was Joe Falcon's "Allons ý Lafayette" from 1928. Although the style was recorded only sporadically for several decades, Iry LeJeune, Harry Choates, Nathan Abshire, Lawrence Walker, Leo Soileau, and Vin Bruce had become influential Cajun artists by the middle of the 20th century. While the music's popularity continued to grow within Louisiana, it didn't enter the spotlight nationally until the mid-'80s, riding on the coattails of the Cajun food explosion. Today several traditional and contemporary Cajun artists — including Dewey Balfa, Zachary Richard, and Beausoleil — tour nationally and internationally.

Compared to Cajun music, zydeco music has a much shorter history. Like Cajun music, the dominant instrument is the accordion, but unlike Cajun music, zydeco adds electric bass, horns, and sometimes keyboards. In a nutshell, zydeco is Creole (Black) dance music of southwest Louisiana blending Cajun music with rhythm & blues and soul. The word "zydeco" is actually a bastardization of an early zydeco song, "L'Haricots Sont Pas Salls" (The Snap Beans Aren't Salted). The first Black-French recordings were made in 1928 by Amad‚ Ardoin, an accordion player who played in the Cajun style. However, the music we know as zydeco today didn't begin to evolve — at least on record — until the mid-'50s, when Clifton Chenier and Boozoo Chavis made their initial recordings.

Like Cajun music, zydeco didn't achieve national popularity until the 1980s, buoyed somewhat by Rockin' Sidney's surprise hit "My Toot Toot." By the '90s, several zydeco artists were signed to major labels, including Terrance Simien, Boozoo Chavis, Buckwheat Zydeco, and Rockin' Dopsie. — Jeff Hannusch
[Edited 3/12/05 0:30am]

Tejano is a modernized, hybrid Latin style strongly rooted in the conjunto and norteño music popular in the region near the U.S./Mexico border, although it isn't quite the same thing. It was developed by working-class Mexican-Americans living in Texas — hence the name, which is the Spanish word for "Texan" and became the accepted term for the music in the early '80s. Bandleader Beto Villa was a pivotal figure in the music's birth, adding instrumentation and song structures (i.e. ranchera, cumbia, polka, etc.) from conjunto/norteño music to his orchestra, which drew upon a regional synthesis of Mexican folk music and big-band swing. The most important contributor, though, was Isidro López, who added vocals, mariachi style, and early rock & roll rhythms while aggressively playing up his conjunto influences. The result was a combination of rural folk and urban sophistication that appealed mightily to young Mexican-Americans in search of a music to call their own, just as rock and R&B were taking over other youth markets during the mid-'50s. During the early '60s, the Tejano ensemble shrank from a large orchestra to a medium-sized group more reliant on electric instruments, although horn sections and accordions remained important parts of the music. Many of these groups played English-language Top 40 rock & roll covers in addition to their Spanish repertoire. In the early '70s, Tejano music (then known as la onda chicana) really came into its own, borrowing freely from other musical traditions present in Texas — blues, country, R&B, pop, rock, jazz — and blending them with Mexican folk as it saw fit. The most important artist of this period was Little Joe (aka José María DeLeón Hernández) Y La Familia, whose music reflected the emerging political consciousness of disillusioned Chicano youth. During the mid-'70s, Tejano lost much of its audience to more traditional Mexican music, but staged a comeback in the mid-'80s thanks to a new infusion of mainstream musical hybrids, as well as major-label interest in the growing Latino market. Bands like Mazz and La Mafia expanded their stage shows to reflect the glitz and excitement of English-language performers, and Selena's pop sensibilities helped make her a superstar in the Latin community. The early '90s saw the greatest creative fertility and diversity of Tejano music to date, but just as those qualities were beginning to wane, Selena was murdered in 1995, touching off a mass media explosion that brought Tejano to the top of the album charts with her posthumous smash Dreaming of You. When the Selena phenomenon leveled off, revitalized norteño had once again captured much of the Mexican-American audience heading into the next millennium.

Mariachi is an urban style of son jarocho that originated in the central part of Mexico and was found from the city of Guadalajara to the south-central state of Michoacan. The origin of the name has been attributed to its being a derivation of the French word "marriage," but it may be a combination of the name "Maria" with the Nahuatl diminutive suffix "chi" (Nahuatl was an indigenous Indian language widely spoken in the area). The original ensemble consisted of two violins, a vihuela (also known as guitara de golpe — a regional name for a small guitar with five strings), jarana (a slightly larger five-string guitar), and harp. In the 20th century, guitarron (a large, acoustic bass guitar with four strings) replaced the harp, which was awkward to transport. In the 1930s, two trumpets were added, and the resulting ensemble — two trumpets, two violins, jarana, vilhuela, and guitarron — has been popularized through films, radio, TV, and sound recordings. There are professional and semi-professional mariachi groups, but the main purpose of these groups is to make a living playing music rather than being attached to particular community functions. Aside from the sound of a mariachi band, they are most recognizable for their "uniform," which is quite ornate. Because mariachis usually make their living by strolling from place to place in search of good money — on street corners or restaurants — their instruments are portable. Mariachis are a common sight in the Zona Rosa and the Plaza Garibaldi in Mexico City. — Keith Johnson

And you find Oldtime yourself!

Have fun!