The Romantic ballad of Mexico

The Latin or romantic ballads has its roots from the Latin American bolero in 50 years (Lucho Kitten, Leo Marini) and it has its romantic song from Italy (Nicola Di Bari and French Charles Aznavour in 60s and 70s.

source of picture: www.nytimes.com

Daniel Party who is an ethnomusicologist describes the romantic ballads as a love song of slow tempo and played by a solo singer accompanied by a group usually.

 The ballad and bolero are confusing and the songs can fall in one or other group without too much care. The different between them is mainly on the refined and symbolic language and also slight bolero which compare the direct expression of the ballad.

The first ballad in Mexico was registered as sonata de amor (Sonata of love) of Mario Alvarez in the year 1961. In 1965 the popular bolero singer-songwriter known as Armando Manzanero released his first ballad, Pbres beso mios (meaning my poor kisses).

The prime of the ballad was reached in the mid-70s where musicians like Jose Jose, Raphael, camilo Sesto, Roberto Carlos, Rocio Durcal and others produced a large number of hits. The major hits of Jose Jose were El triste (meaning Sad one), La nave del Olvido (meaning ship of Oblivion), te extrano (meaning I miss you), Amar y querer (meaning love and love) and El passado (meaning the past) and many others. In the time of the existence the genre joined with different rhythms to make several variants, such as romantic salsa and cumbia apart of others.

From the 90s, the globalization and the media internationalization processes combined the contribution of the ballad’s to spread international and also standardized throughout the common Latina identity.