Schizophonic Corrido Soundscapes

In this article, I offer a novel approach to the study of contemporary corridos by starting from within their sounds. Sonic details in recent corrido subgenres tune us in to the political and economic context of US-Mexico borderlands and the possibilities for Mexican male subjecthood at the turn of the twenty-first century. I pay attention to schizophonic sounds or sounds that feel out of place when distanced from their source of origin. Within narcocorridos and related subgenres, schizophonic sounds creatively extract and musicalize echoes of neoliberal displacement, Felipe Calderon’s war on drugs, and US militarization. A feminist listening recognizes how the celebration of gore and desmadre posturing runs parallel with an explicit increase in misogynist songs ubiquitous to the point of becoming mundane in community soundscapes. Reviewing new developments in the corrido genre, I explore schizophonic listening as a form of political engagement that resists predatory capitalism and increasing authoritarianism in the United States.