Why are the ‘narcocorridos’ of Tucanes de Tijuana so popular?

Minstrels in the Court of the Kingpin by Josh Kun appeared (Arts & Leisure) in Sunday`s New York Times. The band, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, sing narcocorridos, which are songs extolling drug traffikers or romanticizing the lifestyle. “The people want to hear narcocorridos,” said Mario Quintero, the lead singer and songwriter of Los Tucanes.

Quintero says in this article, that he use to write anti-drug songs, but they did not sell well. But the Mexican government is starting to crack down on this type of music. Quintero claims that he is just writing about what he sees on the news. Oddly enough, many people have sympathy for these drug traffickers (such as El Muletas or El Teo) , and romanticize them as heroes.

How would you explain the popularity of narcocorridos? It reminds me of the grassroots popularity of robbers and gangsters (Bonnie and Clyde or John Dillinger, say) in the 1930s.