David Nio

Chic 316 Album Review

10/23/13
The album El Primer Ministro was released by narcocorrido artist Gerardo Ortiz On July
10, 2012. It was released by the label Sony U.S. Latin and was classified under the genre of Latin
Pop and Corridos. Gerardo Ortiz was born in Pasadena, California but at the age of 5 moved to
Culiacan, Sinaloa where his family is from. He is signed to the label Del Records and has won
many awards in Mexico for his music and is one of the top artists of his category. The
narcocorrido style of music he performs is known to provoke danger and he almost became one
of the many murdered artist of his genre when his car was shot at and resulted in the death of two
others.
Narcocorridos are a type of Mexican music that focus on real life events as well as
fictional events involving illegal activities such as drugs, murder, government protest, and often
refer to cartels or cartel figures in the lyrics. The style of music is a narrative ballad that tells the
stories of current or past events that happened in Mexico and are listened to throughout Mexico
and the United States. Narcocorridos evolved from early corridos which usually werent
associated with drugs but rather told the stories of the Mexican revolution.
With expectations set on what to expect I listened to the album from beginning to end and
repeated a few songs at the end that I felt I wanted to analyze. After listening to the album I felt
that the album didnt flow together at all. I do have to mention that although I do speak Spanish
grasping this style of music is new to me which most likely influence my perception of the
music. My reasoning for lack of sync throughout the album is that the songs varied in length but

never seemed to be long enough to fully get into them. There were a few songs that were under
two minutes in length that I felt really brought the album to an uncomfortable stop. Unlike the
other albums this album really didnt have a story from beginning to end or any moral of any
sort. Songs were just pieced together without any sort of connection other then it being another
love song with an occasional narco-style song.
The songs in this album are very similar to each other but either one of two styles. The
first was the general style youd expect from Gerardo which is the narco style song and secondly
the dominant style of the album is the romantic style. The first song of the album El Primer
Ministro is what I expected throughout the album. He starts of by declaring the largest cartel
figure the president of his state Sinaloa. In the song he also mentions how hes always fought
against the power of the state, and how he has an armed group ready to fight for his town. I felt
that was setting the tone of the album for that style but from there it slowly faded away from that.
One of the many romantic songs is El Beso Mas Largo. This song is nothing like the first but
rather tells the story of him having a girl heart in his plans. He wants to get a kiss before he
leaves and how he falls in love every time that he doesnt want to leave. The accordion is heard
throughout the song and this is one of the slower songs of the album. Maana voy a
conquistarla is another romantic song that reminisces of past love and how tomorrow he will
finally conquer her. The songs intro reminds of the type of intro for novelas which further
implanted the love emphasis.
The album did stick with the genre throughout because all though it wasnt always the
narcocorrido style of corrido it always was telling a story of some sort. That story more often
than not was romantic but nonetheless a narrative ballad that a corridor entails. Most of the songs

were fast paced and loud. Many instruments contributed to this including a trumpet that seemed
to appear in every song along with the accordion and guitar.
I did enjoy the album although I was surprised by the content. Gerardo Ortiz is known as
a narcocorrido singer and by listening to this album you wouldnt be overwhelmed by that
feeling. After listening to some of his previous work I expected him to produce the same type of
gangsta rap style corridos that everyone seems to hate but this album was much more romantic
songs rather than violent dialogue he has in some of his other albums. This whole album seemed
like it was targeted for the female listener that like this style, and listening to the album made me
realize which it was classified as pop which before listening to the album was a surprise. The
romantic songs did get annoying after a while but with that said my favorite song was Maana
voy a conquistarla probably the most romantic song on the album.
I would recommend the album to other but definitely to someone who appreciates
romantic ballads. Generally I believe anyone that would receive the recommendation would be
expecting the typical violent story telling narcocorrido style which I believe this album lacks. If I
were to recommended this artist I would chose his older album Entre Dios y El Diablo which
you can tell just from the album title is a little more aggressive and has the style and lyrics I was
longing for. Compared to the music in class I thought it was fairly the same as the genre music
presented to us in class. I thought that Regulo Caro and Gerardo Ortiz although have different
voices have the exact same style which would make sense since they perform the same type of
music. The live performance by Regulo gave me something to compare the album to and I
believe I had to high of expectations for the album that werent fulfilled. The album is still worth
listening to if the you listened to the rest of his work, but be prepared for something different and
not at the quality of his previous works.