Rock en español and shooting the breeze

I have some coworkers who tend to get into very heated discussions over what you might call pendejadas…  Which, if you consider that a pendejo is an idiot, I’m gonna translate pendejadas as idiocies.  It’s more like shooting the breeze really, but with each side accusing the other of spouting puras pendejadas– aka, pure idiocy.

I’ve been told that at least one of these discussions has ended in tears.  The topic?  Whether it’s better to spend all weekend holed up with your significant other or to “go out and do stuff.”

The other day, over Chinese take-out in the kitchen at work, I was treated to some pendejadas about rock en español.  The departure point for discussion was a general consensus that it’s a shame the best known Mexican band in the rest of the world is Maná.  That Maná is going out and representing as the crowned princes of Mexican pop/rock.  But who would be better?

The ensuing discussion went something like this:

Café Tacuba, obviously.  (Other heavy-hitters of Mexican rock.)

No way, man, Café Tacuba is chafa, chafisima (low quality).

Yes, but Café Tacuba are better musicians.

Well, Café Tacuba are probably the best musicians but they don’t necessarily put their musical talents to good use.  Like, they mostly use their powers to produce mediocrity.

Well, the best drummer in all of Latin America, hands down, is Alex Gonzalez from Maná.

No, dude, how can you make such an unequivocal statement, when there are so many drummers you’ve never even heard play– for example all the drummers around the Caribbean who’ve been playing since they were 2 years old, and way more talented than anyone in Maná, but we just don’t know who they are.

But you just said Maná was the best.

Nope, all I said was they’re better than Café Tacuba.

Well, probably the Caifanes were the best of all anyway.

Murmurs of agreement around the table.  End of discussion.

My personal take on the debate?  Well, it’s somewhere in between comparing apples and oranges and six of one, half a dozen of the other.

The thing about Maná is that they’ve been reliably producing the same pop sound for about million years (started in ‘78, went big around ‘90).  However, they’re widely disparaged by anyone with an iota of cool in their body, due to the utter schmaltziness of it all, but the fact remains that they put out some super-catchy melodies.  And I bet that if you took a random sidewalk poll here in Mexico City, you’d get about 95% of people to sing you the chorus to at least 10 different Maná singles.

Here’s a Maná sample, Clavado en un Bar:

Café Tacuba, on the other hand, is a little more of an enigma.  They’re deliberate genre-shifters, and have come out with rock en español, pop ballads, norteño music, folk music, punky stuff, ska-ish stuff, and hip-hop-ish stuff.  You never really know what you’re gonna get, but they’ve had some good songs along the way.  I wonder if, because they’re hard to nail down, they’re a pretty good metaphor for Mexico itself.  Hmm.  (Insert travel guide introduction to the diversity of Mexico’s people, environment, culture, and cuisine here.)

One of Café Tacuba’s most popular songs is the norteño-style Ingrata:

As for the Caifanes, I’m afraid I must plead near-ignorance, except for their cover of the Cuban cumbia, La Negra Tomasa, which is a good one.

Anyhow, I found this particular discussion on rock en español to be more educational than many of the usual lunchtime pendejadas about, for example, the pros and cons of Coca-Cola.