[ad_1]
There was a time—not so long ago, actually—when mentioning the artist Bad Bunny among a bunch of brand marketers would have elicited several confused-looking faces at best. But now? You’d probably get an obvious nod.
This major cultural shift is perfect evidence of just how reactive the marketing industry can be, oftentimes waiting for cultural waves to peak and then ride, as opposed to jumping in and creating the wave itself. And today the cultural shift that marketers may not see coming is the coast-to-coast impact of regional Mexican music, corridos in particular.
Mexican corridos is a music genre that uses instruments and lyrics based on the traditional style of Mexican folklore and includes storytelling that ends with a moral. The genre has been here for centuries, dating back to the early 1800s, and has been an integral part of not only Mexican culture but the surrounding Latin American countries that were introduced to it during the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema.
When it comes to the marketing industry, this isn’t an “I told you so,” sort of moment, but instead the perfect time for marketers to get ahead of the game.
The next Bad Bunny
One of the next, soon-to-be-household names that might still inspire a confused look, is Peso Pluma.
Like Bad Bunny, Peso Pluma is an artist whose meteoric crossover success has created a gateway for millions of young people in the U.S. to turn their attention to corridos and crossover tracks, which intentionally blend a couple of different genres, with Mexican regional melodies firmly in the driver seat. His hit single with Eslabon Armado, “Ella Baila Sola,” was the first regional Mexican song ever to enter the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 and reach number one on the Billboard Global 200.
Other appearances in mainstream culture: Peso Pluma was the first ever regional Mexican artist to perform on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and the first to perform corridos music at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards (also winning top Latin song for the aforementioned song), propelling him even deeper into pop culture. Additionally, performing at Coachella with Becky G gave avid music lovers the chance to experience him in person and add him to their playlists, which is another place he is breaking records as the number five most-streamed artist in the history of Spotify, hitting the Top 50 Global chart five times with his collaborations.
