The colonization of the United States has resulted in a cross-cultural musical landscape, resulting in three dynamic and interrelated genres: tejano, norteño, and U.S. country music. Each of these genres has a specific geographic and social perspective, with tejano music coming from Texan-Mexicans, norteño coming from people from Northern Mexico, and U.S. country music coming primarily from Anglo-Americans. Looking at these genres through the theory of borderisms sheds light on the different experiences and identities that result from the border between Mexico and the U.S. and the power dynamics that influence people’s perception of the border. This study demonstrates that U.S. country music is mostly rooted in a non-border perspective that fails to see the geopolitical significance of the border, norteño music is most consistent with a transnational lens that both acknowledges and challenges the hierarchy between the U.S. and Mexico, and tejano music has a variety of borderisms that reflect Texas’s complex history.
