Switched on Pop - Country music is Mexican (Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera)

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

More often than not, country music is seen as an "American" genre – meaning that the music is seen as strictly from the United States. In some ways, that's true; but the genre's iconography, sound, and ethos can actually be traced to the south of the border, in Mexican regional music. The worlds have been more intertwined than you would think, and in musica mexicana, we find the closest comparison to what we traditionally call "country music." In this episode of Switched On Pop, in honor of country week, we take a look at the cumbia-corrido hybrid "Me Jalo" from Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera, two U.S. based acts performing Mexican regional music, to see what ties the cultures together. Songs discussed: George Strait – El Rey Carín León – Necesito Encontrarte Fuerza Regida, Grupo Frontera – ME JALO Fuerza Regida – TQM Grupo Frontera, Bad Bunny – un x100to Fuerza Regida – SECRETO VICTORIA Grupo Frontera, Grupo Firme – EL AMOR DE SU VIDA Fuerza Regida, Grupo Frontera – Bebe Dame Shania Twain – Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under Hank Williams – Your Cheatin' Heart Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Attention Spotify. Has given the new Good Girl Jasmine Absolute of Carolina Herrera, a fragrance intense with character gourmet and addictive. Imagine a jasmine emvolventy, taffy caramelized and tonka-tostata. A combination that seduce

from the first instant and she'll Gail, Jasmine Absolute, hypnotica, irresistible. Discover it now and let you get involved for their sensia. Welcome to Switch on Pop. I'm producer Rianna Cruz. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding.

And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. And I got bad news for you guys. We're nearing. the end of country week here at Switched on Pop. Say it ain't so. I think it deserves a little sad, he-ya. He-ya. Like that.

Yeah. Sounds like a horse a little bit. Thank you. We got to get he-ah in the vocabulary. So way to bring it back, Greana. I'll never let you live that down, Charlie. What's the purpose of today? What are we doing?

Why does this matter? Well, throughout the week, we've looked at the way country music has transformed and shifted over time from the genre. sounds, backgrounds, and archetypes. But today, I want to look at not just country music's transformation, but it's expansion. We see country as an American genre, but I would argue that it's more than that. One of the roots of American country music is the world of Musica Mexicana, the regional music of Mexico. The worlds have been more intertwined than perhaps the average gringo, not naming names, would

imagine. Think of the imagery of the cowboy, for example, which comes from the Mexican vackero. And there's been informal handshakes between cultures when it comes to country music. George Strait once covered Vicente Fernandez's classic El Ray. Is that George Strait? That is George Strait. All my exes live in Texas like I'm George Strait. Country legend. It's crazy.

And even more recently, we have the music of someone like Canaan Leon, who uses American country instrumentation in his regional Mexican corridors. We got pedal seal and accordion in concert together. I love that. And so today, I want to zero in on the closest conduit we have to English language country music, Mexican regional, through a billboard. Hot 100 hit that combines two of the biggest musica Mexicana groups, Fueza Regida and Grupa Fantaara, with their song Mejalo.

I don't know how I've never heard this, but I love it. What a fun switchup? Like, we've just traversed across Latin America in one second of music. Yeah, based on that snippet, I'm super excited for this conversation. And Rihanna, hearing you talk about American music, it's like, what is America? It's not just the United States. It's the U.S. It's Canada.

It's Mexico, Central America. Exactly. I'm not standing for the Shania Twain Arracur that's happening on this podcast so far. But we're not going to Canada. We're going another time. No, we're going to South. We're going to Mexico. And the two of you might be.

wondering, you know, who are these artists, right? But dutiful listeners might recall that we've talked about both groups on the show before when we did our Latin chart breakers episode a couple years back. We talked about Fueza Rejida with regards to their Coriido-Tumbaro, Te Cueme. And we talked about Group Frontera for their collaboration with Bad Bunny, 1% So we talked about these artists a few years ago, but I'd like to jog your memories a little bit further. Fueza Rehira is a five-piece Mexican regional band from San Bernardino, California. The group is one of the pioneers of the subgenre of Corridos Tumbados.

That we've talked about extensively, but basically, in the loosest of terms, Coriros Dumbados is a mix of traditional Mexican Coriroro songwriting, aka the narrative ballad. We could say the precursor to American country music, combining that with laid-back trap and hip-hop sensibilities, the Tombado part. We've talked previously about the Coriados Tumbados percussiveness, for example, like in my favorite Fueza Rehira song, Du Name. So far.

Their music is propulsive. And much like Jesse Murph in the last country episode, we have a genre-spanning approach to Mexican regional music, particularly in Fueza's ability to bring in EDM and club music, for example, on what they call, quote, Jersey Coritos. Oh, my God. I love the interplay between the Jersey Club kick drum and the offbeat horns. I've never heard that combination, and it's so good.

It's crazy. That song is called Secretto Victoria. Switching gears to Grupo Frontera, on the other hand, they're a little bit more straight and narrow when it comes to genre. They're a Norteno band from a town right above the border in Texas. And Norteno music features accordion and a 12-string guitar called the Bajo Sexto. And much like Corridos, Nortenio music folds in a bunch of different sounds, but Grupo Frontera became known for their including the minor billboard hit, El Amor de Suvida.

Great melodies. That song is a collaboration with Grupo Fontera do a lot of collaborations, and they're notable for it. They've done a bunch of collaborations with Fueza Rehira. Both groups have collaborated before on the cumbia track, Bebe Damme. This is neat. This is kind of like if the Beatles and the Rolling Stones got together for a co-lab or, you know,

like, in sync and the Backstreet boys decided that they were going to get together. Like, you don't see a lot of bands doing co-labs. It's very much taking from, you know, the same. Successive hip-hop culture collabs and how much that drives new audiences. I feel like everyone in every kind of genre has got to collaborate today. And I like hearing it. I agree. Bebe Dame is a great collaboration.

I think it's one of those instant classics. It just works. Fueza and Grupo Fantera just kind of blend together. And it's been a few years since it's come out, but I think it's low-key age like a fine wine that gets better over time. And even though it's more in the vein of what Grupo Fanta is doing with these cumbias, It gives an opportunity for vocals from both groups to shine. And it's a demonstrated hit.

I mean, it peaked at 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. It has over half a billion streams. And to me, embodies a little bit of what I love about country music. It's laid back. And I think a lot of good country music to me is what I like to call patio beer music. Right. Like you sit on your porch, you're drinking an ice cold beer. Life is good.

That's how I feel listening to Bebe de de Més. So I think those connections are in play. We call that stoop music in New York City. We don't have so many patios around here. Stoop music is valid too. I don't think stoop music and country music typically intertwined. They should more, though. I agree.

So looking at Bebe Damé, right? It's easy to see why both groups would want to collaborate again. Bebe Dame came out in 2022. Flash forward a few years. And we have the song at hand, Mejalo, which comes off of the duo's joint EP, Malamia. So let's listen to Mejalo and see how it's adopting or subverting the traditional expectations of country music. I mean, to begin with, it has a kind of one-drop reggae rhythm. Like you don't really have a kick drum on the one.

You have all the offbeat hits on those horns. You traditionally hear that more on the guitar or the organ and reggae. But I'm hearing this very pan-Cribian influence on the song. Is that more of a typical cumbia sound, though? Ooh, that could be, yeah, completely wrong. I feel like that's some shared DNA between reggae and cumbia, perhaps. But there is a cool parallel that I'm hearing to some of the country discussion we've been having this week. U.S. country is a music that prides itself on carrying the torch for tradition.

and that expresses itself through use of acoustic instruments and lyrical references to certain tropes and cliches of the genre. I feel like there's something similar here. This is almost an entirely acoustic track. Seems like it's played in the room. You can hear the musicians like vibing with each other. Yeah. I feel like there's that sense of tradition

very much alive in both of these genres. I like that. I mean, there's a few things working for Mahalo here. Right off the bat. Not even listening to the song, we have the imagery, right, rooted in this tradition that you're talking about. I think it's worth to bring up the cover of their shared EP. It's a silhouette of a woman riding a horse in front of the ocean at nighttime, very evocative. It's giving romance novel.

Yeah, maybe a little bit. I mean, the video has the same clip. Number one, I think it's badass, great imagery. But number two, it's evoking the iconography of country music, right? This cowboy or the bocero. Oh, kind of like how Kenny Ches is. He's really into like beach country music. I feel like leans on some Mexican sounds.

Like I'm hearing that connection. I don't think anybody's ever brought up Kenny Chesney and Fuezaa Ahida in the same conversation, Charlie. It's happening now. It's happening now. It's happening now. For really paving new ground discussing country music right now. Okay, but it is making me realize there is that whole lineage really from Jimmy

Buffett probably, right? Of country music that. is played on island vacations. Mm-hmm. And so there is this interplay between a lot of often Americans going on vacation to places in Latin America and thinking about Margaritaville that might have big horns in it. Right. Steel drum.

Right. Steel drum, incorporating the sounds of the places that they're in. So there is a bit more dialogue, perhaps, than is often recognized. The lyrics to Mehalo are less forthcoming in the traditional country sense, right? we don't get any lines about horses or trucks or tractors, you know, the things that we would come across quite often if we listen to American Country Radio. But Mehalo colloquially translates to I Drop By. And it's a song about being the other man.

More specifically, the narrator being the other man to this woman who is cheating on her partner with him. Dun dun dun dun. Okay, so then in the co-lab is the, Their group the other man? Like, how does this work? We'll get there. We'll get there for.

Okay, okay, okay. The lyrics here translates to, if you knew that because of you, I'm up all night, you call me when that guy leaves, and I rush over right away. It's a song about being a side piece. Scandalous. Kway. Mahalo tells a story, right? Talking about cheating from the opposite side of the coin. Other lyrics in the song gesture at this larger idea, right, of being a side piece.

I like this lyric in particular. Because the time you call me at isn't normal. And I saw you save me under a different name on what short-furt. for WhatsApp. This song is kind of like the opposite of Carrie Underwoods before he cheats. Yeah. You know, it's like the other characters in this story. Right, right.

It's like, you know, I'm being chill with it. Yeah. It's an inversion of the typical U.S. country narrative we talked about in our last episode. It's like from a fresh perspective that's really... I mean, not the most morally upstanding perspective. Yeah, but I mean, whoever said that country music. was morally upstanding. It's a genre of crooks and outlaws and no good knicks.

I want my music to inform my moral good behavior, Nate. He came to the wrong pod, Charles. Switched on morality. Less fun podcast. Rihanna, where are we? Well, I'm talking about the subverted cheating narrative. I like the WhatsApp connection in particular. It reminds me of the song we talked about in episode two,

Big X to plug and Bailey Zimmerman's all the way, where Big X has the line. about texting somebody and the texts are in blue, they're green, right? Implying that either they have an Android or they blocked the narrator of the song. Right. And I'm seeing like a new country, right, in this expansion, like these interwoven narratives of technological follies. I'm trying to think about like WhatsApp serves a particular form of communication.

Like I messaged on WhatsApp with a lot of my international friends. Totally. You know, like it is the Latin American messaging. app of choice. And I mean, it's because it's the easiest way to send international messages without having to spend money. Exactly. It's the collision of that traditional instrumentation with the 2025 technological references that make it such a pleasurable combination, I think. I mean, it plays into this larger narrative, right? Mexican regional music is big on storytelling. We have a narrative happening here. Similarly, one of the great narratives in country music is cheating. Lots of country music is

about cheating from both sides of the coin, you know, being cheated on, being the other in a relationship. I even found the list from the website, quote unquote, taste of country with the 35 greatest country cheating songs filled with songs from the country music canon, like the Queen of Canada, Schnea Twain's, Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under? Ooh. Who's bed have your boots been on it? I just want to say for the record that anyone who's bringing boots. into the bedroom is not a morally upstanding person under any circumstances.

Boots do not belong in the bedroom. That's disgusting. Talk your shit, Charlie. You have carpeted bedrooms? Yeah, exactly. You've got a carpet. You got your boots on? You got mud on the carpet.

Damn, and if you're cheating in this circumstance, you're clearly going to be leaving prints. So, no objections here. We're on the same page. This is like as soon as you start going on a subway, you're just like, never again where my shoes be on in the house. This is a shoes off household. I think that's why that song struck me so hard. Mm-hmm.

The Boots narrative. Mm-hmm. Also on this list is a song we talked about earlier before he cheats by Carrie Underwood. I can picture the baseball bat. What's number one? Number one. Ooh, I got to pull up the list. Hold on.

Jolene? Jolene is kind of a song about potential cheating. Jolene's number two, if you could believe it. Okay. Number one is a classic. 1952, You're Cheating Heart by Hank Williams. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that checks out.

Yeah, you'll cheat and make you. You cry and cry and try to sleep. So Groupo Frontera and Fuerz are tapping into a deep lineage of betrayal, infidelity, and callous recklessness with another's heart. Yeah, they're playing with these narratives that are really often apparent in U.S. country music. And something about Mejalo that I enjoy is that it's not really a sad song. It reminds me of the Shania song because the Shania song, whose bed of your boots been under is playful, right? Like there's this upbeat energy to it that's like winking.

She knows something. And Mejalo has this casual air to it about being the side piece. Like it's not mad or upset, really. It's very matter of fact. And you could even make the argument that the narrator enjoy. being the side piece since he's ready to pull up no matter what.

We could look at the lyrics of the chorus, for example. I'm on my way, I'm on my way. You tell me, come over, come here, and there I go. He's at the whims of the object of his affection. I don't sense any being racked with guilt. It's more like you said.

Just the practicality is like, tell me when, tell me where. Exactly. What name are you going to use? And I'll be there. There's a willingness by the narrator to enable this relationship. No qualms we have. No qualms is not a good country song name. Quolms is one of those words that just doesn't sing well.

I've got no qualms with you. Yeah, I can't really imagine singing it in a twang. Like no qualms. Like it doesn't really roll off the tongue. I would like to hear a song that has the word quolms in it. Please hit us up. I just want to hold you in my alms. Alms.

You're getting Ariana Grande on us here, Nate. So we've discussed Mejalo's imagery. We've discussed its lyrics. But the most notable part of the song, I would say, is what you guys clued into when I first played it, which is the way that it sounds and the way that it switches from this coritos tombado sound to. to this Nortenio Cumbia sound, and we'll explore it fully after the break.

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No, no. No. We'll dive into their stories and get valuable insights from top executives, actors, entrepreneurs, and other individuals who have inspired me so much in my own journey. Pretty tough is your front row seat to the women who have demonstrated the power in being unapologetic in their pursuits. I hope you'll join us. New episodes drop Wednesdays on YouTube or in your favorite podcast app. Earlier in Country Week, we talked about the duets between hip-hop and country artists, you know, where the sounds blend together, thinking of Broadway girls by Morgan Wallen and Lil Dirk, or the song we discussed at length all the way between Big X the Plug and Bailey Zimmerman. Here, Mejalo between Group of Frontera and Fueza Rehira does something different.

It's not really common in country music or really any music period that I've heard. The song doesn't cater to either group's... sound in favor of the other. Instead, it unites both of these groups' disparate genres on the same song with two separate singers. So the real gag is like this moment, right, where everything winds down. It's almost like you're switching records, you know, I feel like there should be like a record scratch in the middle, like you're flipping sides. And the song switches vocalists from Fueza's JOP to group of Frontera's Paiosoliz.

The new vocalist sings the same lines that JOP just sang, but over new Norteno instrumentation. If we compare both parts, right, the vocals that Pio sings are more sung, less wrapped. It's slower. We've also had a huge metric shift. We've gone from counting in three to counting in two. The switch from Coriados Tumbados to Cumbia and Nortennial music. Cool. And that switch is really cool because in the beginning, the first.

minute of the song. Is Fuza Arejira coming out a straight in a Corridos-Tumbados style? They sing the only verse in the song setting up this narrative of a girl with beautiful eyes, asking her to tell him if she's with her man because he doesn't care. I'm sorry, I'm just very distracted because someone's playing a six-string, fretless bass. and as a lover of Les Claypool, Thundercat, and many other six-ring for bass players, I'm jiving to that. And then on top of it, there's an upright acoustic bass

being played in this, like, percussive slap approach. Yeah. While a sick trombone solo just rips in the foreground. There's like twinkly synthesizer. So much going out of this track. It's amazing. Yeah, this is the instrumentation typically for Corritos Dumbados.

There's this percussive guitar. There's horns. I hear tuba and trombone in there. There's no drums, but we have that slapping bass percussion kind of building up the back end. Got to slap at a bass. Slap at a bass. Oh, my gosh. Thanks for backing me out.

You want try it, Nate. It feels good when you say it. No, I need to get out of here. No, you got to do it, Nate. Come on. Slap of the bass. Yes. Okay.

We're all slapping the bass. They feel good. Somewhere Larry Graham is shaking his head and disapproval. Apologize. So after this minute of the Coritos Tombados Foazara Hira classic style, we switch from the slap of the ball of the ballad of. the bass into the cumbia that i group of frantera is known for and with that slower delivery with the change of meter different instruments come in we've got drum set for one percussion comes back into the

picture. With some tasty fills. Oh, yeah. That accordion. Do we have an accordion before? I'm not sure. No, this accordion pops up for the kumbia of the song. I mean, it's the calling card of Nortenae music, the accordion.

Yeah. And I feel like the presence of the accordion, and maybe this is me grasping at straws, changes the meaning of the song a little bit. At the beginning, you know, JOP is delivering these vocals in a style that feels very tormented maybe over this propulsive, a little intense instrumental. And then when everything slows down and the accordion comes in, there's

a little bit more upbeat playfulness to it. It feels a little bit less love sick, a little bit less jaded. A little more romantic. Yeah, Kumbia, I mean, it's a romantic music. Yeah, if this beat switch was just happening for the sake of it, I mean, let's be honest, it would

still be sick. Yeah, yeah. But it does feel like it's accomplishing something more within the message of the song. It's like about different ways of looking at this illicit relationship and maybe challenging you as a listener to come to your own conclusion about where you stand. And we're going to frame it in different ways. You know, we're going to frame it in the Corido-Tumbado way and then we'll frame it in the Cumbio-Nor way and you be the judge. Are you more of a slap-of-the-base guy, more of an accordionist? Don't make me choose. Charlie. That's why this song is brilliant. You can have it all.

And something I think is interesting about this song switch up is that the chorus doesn't come in until this cumbia section. And it has this bouncy resignation to it because of the instrumental. And listening to it right now, I'm like kind of thinking. it diffuses the tension that's already been set up in the song. The chorus is bouncy. Seductive. Yeah. And the lyrics that go like, I'm on my way.

I'm on my way. You tell me, come over, come here, and there I go. Like, you're kind of moving around as the song is talking about going here, there, and everywhere for this object of affection. It feels like this is what you put on the stereo in your 2000s Toyota Tacoma pickup as you're heading over to your assignation with the married woman. It's very cinematic. You really painted a picture here, Nate.

Well, you started it with drinking beers on the patio, Brianna. So, I'm just following in your footsteps. I heard that. Yeah, I think the chorus is the best part of the song. It's really catchy, able to stick in your head. And it serves purpose in the song. Like, when JOP from Pueza hops on the kumbia beat to sing this chorus at the end of the song, it kind of changes his tone.

It makes him feel more resilient. to the reality of the situation. It paints a picture of these two separate men being equally at the whims of this woman. They're both doing the same thing. They're both bopping around, waiting for her to text them. They're not the only one in the rotation. Wow. I'm into this interpretation, Rihanna. Yeah, the way I see it, they're both in the rotation.

They both got the different names on WhatsApp. They both are being hit up at random hours of the day. Like, their narrative is shared. So is this a polyamorous thing or I think it's the trists. I don't think this is consensual. No, because they don't harmonize. Right. So they're in their separate lanes, you know, which I think is a deliberate choice.

Right. And I think the video reflects it too, because when I was, watching the video, I noticed JOP is never in the same room as Group of Frontera. He's in a bar and bio and the rest of Group of Frontera are like in a field playing their music. They're both in different places. It sounds like some budgetary constraints on the music video to me. Well, yeah. It's like playing the game like is Nikki Minaj actually on set? Always the answer is no. It's never the answer. Yeah. So obviously mehalo sounds different than US country music. As we know it, right? Toby Keith never made a

combia song. His loss. Our loss. I would have loved to hear it. I think George Straits' interpretation of El Ray is pretty singular. There's no real comparison for what he's doing on that track. I mean, now that you bring it up, they're like, I'm hearing that the accordion

has almost the twang of a country telecaster guitar. They can substitute for one another. They're doing a different thing, but they both got that nasal kind of quality. I think there could be way more crossovers. And there are genres like Tejano and Tex-Mex music, which, if not country necessarily, are country adjacent and have exploited those border crossing lyrics and sounds for generations.

But this feels different. Like this is a big old smash that's poking holes in our conception of what it means to be an American in a fundamental way. And it's doing so through this tantalizing narrative that has its own rich, tradition within the world of country and all these other genres. So I think this is like a perfect addition to Country Week because it's allowing us to kind of zoom out and expand our conception of what country can be. But I think it's a note here to go with what you guys are saying. Both bands are from the U.S. Fuezaa Hiraz from San Bernardino. Yeah. Group of Frontera is from a Texan border town, you know, like there's these connections across the diaspora and,

When when we think about what country music is, its imagery, where it comes from, musica Mexicana is really the closest conduit. And you could even go so far as to expand worldwide and say perhaps every country, if we listen closely enough, has their own version of country music. Deep. So, you know, as the genre continues to expand and bring more people into the fold, I'm holding out hope that maybe one day the country corrido will hit it big on U.S. country radio. Switched on Pop is produced by Rihanna Cruz, edited by Art Chung, engineered by Brandon McFarlane,

illustrations by Iris Gottlieb. Our theme song is by Zach Tenaro and Jocci Adams of Arc Iris. We're a member of the Vox Media Podcast Network, the production of Vulture, which is part of New York magazine. You can subscribe at mymag.com slash pod. Listen to more episodes of Switched on Pop anywhere you get podcasts. Find us on social media at Switched on Pop. Also check out our website, switchdownpop.com, or our show notes where you can sign up for our weekly newsletter. Don't go anywhere, y'all, because we're coming back at you tomorrow.

Oh, yeah. That's not a he-ya. That's a ye-ha. Country Week continues. And until then, thanks for listening. Thanks for listening.