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 Entertainment | September 2006 
Anglo-Style Rockers Making Pop-Punk Waves in Mexico
 Ayala Ben-Yehuda - Billboard
| | Though acts enjoy radio support in Mexico, sites like MySpace and MTV's LaZona.com are allowing Mexican bands to absorb outside influences and get their sound out in a new way. |
Allison. Zoe. Motel. Panda. Novel. The newest trend in Mexican music is dominated by young bands with one-word names and a style reminiscent of Anglo pop-punk and alternative rock.
Unlike Mexican rock pioneers Mana and Cafe Tacuba, which incorporate Latin elements in their music, the new groups are young enough to have grown up on and still be in the target audience of MTV.
Borrowing from Anglo groups is not new in Mexico, but this time the sound is heavily influenced by pop-punk bands like Blink-182 and Green Day. One band, EMI's Zoe, also draws on British groups that would land on alternative rock stations in the United States, like the Cure.
Four of the nominees in the breakthrough artist category at this year's Premios MTV Latinoamerica -- Allison, Zoe, Motel and Panda -- are in the new Mexican rock genre. Another leader in the style, Universal's Division Minuscula, is nominated in the alternative artist category. All five of those bands have had top 10 albums on the Mexican charts.
"They're very video-driven," says Jose Tillan, senior VP of music and talent for MTV Networks Latin America and MTV Tr3s, the bilingual U.S. channel set to launch September 25. "It's kind of funny for them to see themselves on the channel they actually watch as a reference point for music."
A few of the Mexican bands have fans in other Latin countries, but the movement "is in the infancy stage," Tillan says.
And major labels are adapting to a movement fueled by video and the Internet to a degree not seen before in Mexico.
MAKING FRIENDS
Though acts enjoy radio support in Mexico, sites like MySpace and MTV's LaZona.com are allowing Mexican bands to absorb outside influences and get their sound out in a new way. Sony BMG U.S. Latin VP and general manager Ruben Leyva, whose label roster includes Allison, is counting on the band's MySpace popularity to flow stateside, too. "They have a huge MySpace following in Mexico, and (it's) starting to develop here as well," Leyva says. (Allison has more than 24,000 "friends" linked to its profile.)
Labels also are turning to independent labels to tap the energy of Mexico's youth. Warner signed a two-year licensing deal with Movic Records last fall. Under the arrangement, Warner will take over sales and distribution and provide marketing support for Movic bands like Panda.
Univision Music Group Mexico diversified its largely regional Mexican and traditional pop catalog by striking a licensing agreement with indie Kbaret Music, home to Novel.
EMI signed Zoe via a licensing deal with indie Noiselab, which ran a teaser campaign featuring the band's first single and video on its Web site months before release.
That viral and word-of-mouth strategy is especially important because of the lack of Latin radio stations in the United States devoted exclusively to rock.
Even with MTV Tr3s, mun2 and online buzz, radio and touring will have to play their parts in establishing a fan base in the United States. Allison is gearing up for a possible run of shows in Texas and the West Coast; Zoe joined Molotov and power-poppers Delux this past summer on the Coors Light Rock Prendido tour.
There's also the question of whether young Latinos in the United States who already have heard a lot of power-pop in English will want to hear it again in Spanish. "I venture to say that a kid who has a Molotov record or a Cafe Tacuba record will probably also have a record by Rage Against the Machine or Beck," Tillan says. "So maybe based on that philosophy, the kid who has a Blink-182 (album) might buy an Allison record if they discover it." |
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