Narcoculture has been considered a phenomenon of socialization that exists in territories where drug trafficking has become politically, socially, economically and culturally influential. In Mexico, the phenomenon has an aesthetic and a vernacular philosophy based on fashion, on a film sub-genre, on ostentatious hyper-consumption practices, and most significantly, on a popular musical genre known as narcocorrido -- heritage of the age-old narrative tradition of epic ballads and Mexican banditry. In the 21st century, with the rise of digital practices predominantly on youtube, Facebook, and Instagram, its audience and industry reached heights of unprecedented popularity, largely due to a new generation of (narco)corridistas or composers that emerged in both Los Angeles, California and Sinaloa, Mexico. These corridos alterados, as they are also known, were written with unusual graphic brutality focusing on the social violence affecting Mexico. Taking into account the journalistic and academic considerations that have been made on the subject on the War on Drugs in Mexico, I propose from the field of cultural studies to analyze the phenomenon from the content and industry of these narcocorridos, as a means to provide other explanatory and interpretive approaches to this social violence that has produced more deaths than the Iraq War and more disappearances than any Latin American dictatorship of the 20th century. La narcocultura ha sido considerada un fenomeno de socializacion que existe en territorios donde el narcotrafico se ha insertado politica, social, economica y culturalmente. En Mexico, el fenomeno tiene una estetica y una filosofia vernacula basada en una moda de vestimenta, en un subgenero cinematografico (videohomes), en ostentosas practicas de hiperconsumo y, primordialmente, en un genero musical popular conocido como narcocorrido, herencia de las antiguas baladas epicas y del bandolerismo mexicano. En el siglo XXI, con el auge de las practicas digitales predominantemente en youtube, Facebook e Instagram, su audiencia e industria alcanzaron alturas de popularidad sin precedentes, en parte con una nueva generacion de compositores (narco)corridistas que surgieron tanto en Los Angeles, California como Sinaloa, Mexico. Estos corridos alterados, como tambien se les conoce, narraban con una brutalidad grafica inusual los motivos sociales de la guerra contra los carteles del narcotrafico. Asi, tomando en consideracion la cronica periodistica y los enfoques academicos, este trabajo desde los estudios culturales analiza la industria y los contenidos de los narcocorridos, para brindar otras enfoques explicativos e interpretativos de esta violencia social que ha producido mas muertes dolosas que la Guerra de Irak y mas desapariciones que cualquier dictadura latinoamericana del siglo XX.
Café Society
