15 Facts About Tejano music

Tejano music, known as Tex-Mex music, is a popular music style fusing Mexican and US influences.

Typically, Tejano combines Mexican Spanish vocal styles with dance rhythms from Czech and German genres -particularly polka or waltz.

Central to the evolution of early Tejano music was the blend of traditional forms such as the corrido and mariachi, and Continental European styles, such as polka introduced by Germany, Polish, and Czech settlers in the late 19th century.

Early inceptions of Tejano music demonstrated musical innovation, but a socially and culturally innovation in themes that countered narratives of dominant culture.

The rhythms of Tex-Mex Tejano music are those of the polka, adapted from the Germans, who in turn had borrowed the polka from the Czechs and Bohemians.

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La Onda popularity continued to surge in the early to mid-1980s with the fusion progression of Tejano music coming to the forefront regionally with Tejano ballads like Espejismo's hit "Somos Los Dos", written and sung by McAllen native Rudy Valdez, and La Sombra with their Tex-Mex English and Spanish brand of Tejano.

Electronic instruments and synthesizers increasingly dominated the sound, and Tejano music increasingly appealed to bilingual country and rock fans.

Quintanilla, known as "The Queen of Tejano Music", became the first female Tejano artist to win a Grammy and her Ven Conmigo became the first Tejano album by a female artist to be certified gold.

Since the end of the 20th century, Tejano music has seen a decline of dedicated radio stations across the US, due to several factors.

At the turn of the 21st century, Tejano influence has declined in part due to decreased promotion, the rise in Regional Mexican and other Latin music, the breakup or retirement of established performers, and the emergence of few new performers.

The accordion, while a historically popular instrument in Tejano music, has gone from a secondary instrument to a must-have instrument.

Key factors that influenced the production of Tejano music can be attributed to a diversifying American culture and greater socioeconomic opportunities enabled Mexican American musicians to perform and record music for regional audiences.

Term "Tex-Mex" is used in American rock and roll for Tejano music-influenced performers such as the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Texas Tornados, Los Super Seven, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, Los Lobos, Latin Playboys, Louie and the Lovers, The Champs, Ry Cooder, Calexico, Los Lonely Boys, The Mavericks, Son de Rey, and Selena y Los Dinos.

Tejano and conjunto music is so popular that organizations such as the Guadalupe Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas hold annual festivals every year.

Tejano music signed a record contract with Wicker Records in 1994 and signed a four-year contract with Fonovisa-Platino Records; her career was short-lived, but she was the first female Tejano artist to be invited to sing at the White House during the Clinton administration in 1994.