(upbeat music) (Cali singing in Spanish) - Sierreño music is Mexican regional music that has its roots in corridos that date back to the 1800s.

The corrido is storytelling by songs that can span generations.

These songs highlight working class struggles while striving to make the best out of life, love, and even times of war.

(upbeat music) (Cali singing in Spanish) - [Linda] Even as they incorporate new styles, Gen Z sierreño musicians preserve the corrido essence, from love and heartbreak to social commentary and the Mexican American lived experience.

They're also taking this genre to new heights.

Peso Pluma and Eslabon Armado's sierreño anthem, "Ella Baila Sola," peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and garnered over one billion streams on Spotify.

Today, we're gonna hang out with Revolucion in Watsonville, California.

They're a part of the wave of Mexican American Gen Z musicians turning sierreño, until recently an obscure regional Mexican subgenre, into a generational movement with global recognition.

(emotional guitar music) - We were listening to this, like, genre of music that was, like, up and coming at the time, that was really blowing up.

I bought a bass during that time and he would, like, play the the guitar.

(upbeat music) (Cali singing in Spanish) - My first job when I was 15, I worked at the strawberry fields picking strawberries.

My dad sent me with my uncle.

And what really motivated us was music, was the music regional mexicano and because it would just make us want to dance, it would make us wanna scream.

It's just something that kind of like grows in you and you grow a passion for it.

'Cause it is, like, it's a part of the culture, you know.

(lively guitar music) - I started off with the drums.

I was about, like 14, 15 years old, and my dad just decided to buy me some drums, and then after that, I'm changing, like around 17 years old, 18, to an accordion.

And then I decided to change 'cause the music was, like, evolving.

So I went into like the 12 string guitar, which a lot of people call a requinto, but it's like a 12 string guitar.

(Cali singing in Spanish) - It started off as polka music, actually.

It just evolved over here and, like, it played a big part, like, in the Revolution.

- Yeah, yeah, it started early in the 1800s, the corridos, and they would just talk about war, politics, social injustice, about the revolutionary heroes.

That's the reason why this genre is really important to us because it's tradition.

(vocalist singing in Spanish) - [Linda] Mexican regional music has long held influence in the United States.

Los Tigres Del Norte, originally from Sinaloa, Mexico, have been in San Jose, California since the late 1960s creating corridos that relate to immigrant and working people's struggles.

They took Mexican regional music global and so many others have followed suit.

(band singing in Spanish) - In the late 1980s, Linda Ronstadt paid homage to her father and Mexican regional music by releasing the album, "Canciones de Mi Padre."

(Ronstadt singing in Spanish) - [Linda] Then in the 1990s, a Texas-born girl who didn't speak Spanish splashed onto the scene as the queen of Tejano music.

(Selena singing in Spanish) - [Linda] From these early trendsetters, Mexican regional music has gone from being a niche genre to securing a global audience, with consumption up 42.1% in the first six months of 2023, a growth rate second only to K-pop.

Mexican regional music encompasses many subgenres, from corridos, mariachi, norteño, Tex-Mex, banda, and sierreño.

And it has a strong presence on both sides of the US-Mexico border.

Sierreño dates back to the early 1990s and hails from the northern Mexican states of Sinaloa, Sonora, and Chihuahua.

Earlier it was known as campirano, a word with roots to being of the land or el campo.

Miguel y Miguel are early fathers of sierreño music.

(Miguel y Miguel singing in Spanish) - Ariel Camacho, who died at the young age of 22, had a strong influence on today's Gen Z musicians.

(Ariel singing in Spanish) - I wanted to become an artist, you know, and seeing people like Ariel Camacho, he would do it with a requinto, so the lead guitar, and he was the main vocalist/songwriter, so that's what really inspired me.

(Cali singing in Spanish) - Revolucion share a bond with sierreño band Yahritza y Su Esencia, who also grew up in an agricultural community.

From the Yakima Valley in Washington state, dotted with small towns and apple orchards, at only 17, Yahritza Martinez fronts the sibling trio leading sierreño.

Her older brothers Armando, 25, and Jairo, 18, inspired her with their love for the genre.

You could have gone with a lot of genres, so why sierreño music?

- Well, it was mainly Ariel Camacho when we started.

That's when he was doing super well.

I mean, that's why we started playing the guitar, because of Ariel Camacho.

And I'm pretty sure a lot of people also started playing the guitar.

A lot of people that are in the music industry right now, they also got inspired by Ariel Camacho.

So thanks to him, we love the sierreño genre.

- Yahritza y Su Esencia not only hit number 20 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart with their single, "Soy El Unico," but were also nominated for two Latin Grammys in 2023.

Their success has crossed borders as they've gone on to tour the US and Mexico.

Why do you feel that your music has resonated so much with Gen Z and, like, young Mexican Americans in the US?

- Because it's the way we think in English and we write in Spanish.

So I feel like how we translate our writing is how people feel it.

- When I was three years old, I was brought to the US.

And a lot of our families are coming into the US to look for a better opportunity in life, and whoever grows up in the US knows that you gotta learn English to go to school and to get good grades and all.

So a lot of people can relate to us so that's why they feel our music and our writing.

(gentle music) - Key to today's global movement and also inspired by Camacho is musician Natanael Cano.

Cano ushered in the new genre when he blended sierreño with trap music to create corridos tumbados.

(Natanael singing in Spanish) - [Linda] This new generation, like musician Ivonne Galáz, honors the music of their grandparents and parents by putting their own spin on the traditional sound.

(Ivonne singing in Spanish) - Traditionally, mariachi and other Mexican regional music can have a large number of instruments.

Sierreño music is stripped down and closer to its original corrido roots.

It uses traditional acoustic guitars, a Bajo sexto, requinto, a Bajo quinto, and sometimes can have a tuba or an electric bass for a contemporary twist.

This combination gives it a distinctive sound and flair.

(lively music) With Mexican Americans working in agriculture all across the US, it's not surprising to see the huge influence that sierreño has had on immigrants and first generation Gen Z.

- It really started to, like, evolve with, like, the internet age and how it was introduced.

Like, it was in the hands of kids who could, like, produce music and put it out onto a platform.

- The electric guitar comes back in.

(vocalist singing in Spanish) (lively music) - So my name is Víctor Bizarro, aka known as VixEngineer.

I'm an audio engineer, producer, born in Prunedale, and I'm 17 years old.

- Sick.

Okay, so how did you start audio engineering?

- I remember back then when I was like 15, I'm a musician myself, so I wanted to learn how to, like, record myself and put it out into platforms.

So I got inspired by other people to get my own interface computer and I started recording and I started recording other bands, and then from there I just went on.

- Can you show me some of your music?

- Yeah.

So it's not finished.

Like I said, we still gotta put in the drums and then a new voice 'cause I was engineering and recording the guitar and the voice.

- Oh my gosh, okay.

- So I was running out of breath.

(gentle guitar music) So that's me on guitar.

- How has it been being so young and, like, being in this field?

Like, can you just talk to me about what that's like?

- It's been fun, you know, but in the beginning, it's always been hard.

A lot of people don't trust in your work since you're very young.

So I just had to work and make the best out of it and just give my best to, you know, keep up with everything.

(Víctor singing in Spanish) - That's you?

- Yeah, but like I said, that's- - No, it's so good.

You sound so good.

(Víctor singing in Spanish) - I just think it's really cool how, specifically, like, your generation is really bringing this onto, like, a global stage.

Like, do you feel like you're watching it happen?

Like, do you feel like you have that awareness as you're making the music?

- Yes, all the time.

Notice the corridos, they're progressing a lot.

They're becoming on a top world level now.

(upbeat music) (Cali singing in Spanish) - What do you feel like the relationship is, if any, between the older sierreño music and musicians and, like, this newer generation?

- It goes kind of 50-50, 'cause sometimes the older people, they don't like the newer stuff.

They're so traditional.

But at the same time, there is a lot of traditional people that love the new stuff.

Same thing with the young people.

They don't really like listening to the older stuff.

Like us, for example, we like getting inspired from the classics, you know.

We love the classics.

(upbeat music) (Cali singing in Spanish) - What misconceptions do you think people have about sierreños or, like, your culture?

- Some people think that it's just kind of talking about either, like, violence or, like, drugs, you know, what's going on with the drug war in specifically and all that stuff.

And if they were just to listen to the music and listen to the lyrics and really understand, like, there's so much more art to it, more beauty to it, so much more diversity as people expect.

(upbeat music) (Cali singing in Spanish) But for the most part, I just focus on bringing a positive message, talk about things that people relate to.

It's just something that keeps our names alive or our ancestors alive, you know, kind of keeps that passion awake, you know, for the generations to come to go out there and do something that they're passionate about, music, you know, stay off the streets and stay out of trouble.

It's something that means a lot to us because it's how we party, it's how we work, you know.

Everything we do is focused on tradition and culture, so that's why it's very important too.

(upbeat music) - Sierreño music is here to stay, to continue being the sound of a kid growing up living the Mexican American experience.

(upbeat music) (Cali singing in Spanish) (Cali continues speaking in Spanish)