The genre has been affected by developments ranging from the crackdown on illegal immigrants and the nation's economic downturn to the uncertainty over the impact of the recent sale of Latin powerhouse Univision Music Group to Universal Music Group. And yet, numbers from Nielsen SoundScan and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) show a genre that, despite the downturn in the economy in general and the music industry in particular, remains sturdy, if not unshaken. Regional Mexican music is still, by huge margins, the dominant Latin music genre in the country.

According to Nielsen SoundScan numbers, regional Mexican music accounted for an astonishing 59.5 percent of all U.S. Latin music sales for the first 19 weeks of the year, up from the 57.7 percent it represented for the same time period in 2007.

Although regional Mexican sales have dropped -- as has been the case with all music sales -- the decline of 13.8 percent compares favorably with other genres. Sales of Latin pop were down 20.4 percent while sales of Latin rhythmic music, including reggaeton, were down 31.8 percent.

The RIAA's 2007 year-end numbers paint a similar picture. While net shipments of Latin music in the United States were down by 19 percent compared with 2006, net shipments of regional Mexican were the least affected, in percentage terms: down by a scant 3 percent.

ON THE MOVE

The continued resilience of regional Mexican rests on a combination of ingenuity and sheer numbers. People of Mexican descent remain the biggest Hispanic group by far in the U.S. Whereas previously they tended to settle in pockets in the West, Midwest and Southwest, increasingly they are spreading out through the country.

That fact is reflected in the predominance of regional Mexican stations in the country, accounting for 19.7 percent of all Hispanic listening, according to Arbitron's 2007 Hispanic Radio Today report. Beyond the myriad AM regional Mexican stations scattered just about everywhere, the Mexican population in major urban areas has grown so much that in the past year alone, New York and Miami's first regional Mexican FM stations launched.

Beyond demographics, regional Mexican is fueled by innovation and a spirit of independence that has kept the genre vibrant and agile.

"I see a lot of new acts doing well at a more street level," Sony BMG Norte vice president of marketing/A&R Nir Seroussi says, citing newer acts like Los Cuates and El Tigrillo Palma.

"You won't necessarily see them on the top 10 of the charts, but you go to the nightclubs and the dances and the reaction is amazing," Seroussi says. "And my sales are fine. My numbers contradict a little bit of all that negativism you hear about. Yes, immigration and the recession has affected us, but on this end, people are still buying records."

"I see more new companies," KBUE (La Que Buena) Los Angeles program director Pepe Garza says. "When major labels have less money for promotion, it opens new spaces for others. People that weren't around before are now making money with their albums and with their artists."

That there is money to be made is exemplified by mariachi icon Vicente Fernandez, who just began the first leg of a 25-plus-show trek and broke attendance records at San Francisco's Cow Palace and the Stockton (California) Arena.

More than 15,000 people attended Fernandez's May 10 show at the Cow Palace, breaking the previous record, held by the Rolling Stones, by 88 people. Fernandez's show made more than $1 million in gross sales, according to Billboard Boxscore.

On May 11, at the Stockton Arena, Fernandez again broke an attendance record -- his own -- by drawing 11,516 people, far more than acts like Gwen Stefani or the Cheetah Girls have drawn at the venue.

Reuters/Billboard

Copyright © 2008 Reuters. All rights reserved.