Sometime in the 1960's a  social phenomenon began to develop in drug-torn Mexico called the baladas prohibidas, which are ballads or corridos written about people involved in the country’s drug industry.  It is said that these songs which are sometimes known as narco corridos are sponsored by the country’s drug lords who engage singers to write songs about them  to put them in a good light.  The music was disseminated  in low-social-economic neighborhoods to encourage the country’s poor  to work in the illicit  industry. One of the other themes of many of these narco  corridos is that the USA’s “War on Drugs” is indefensible).

Today these lively tunes are still popular throughout Mexico.  Three years ago,  however, the owners  of various  radio stations and their affiliates stopped playing the music because they realized   that they  were losing their biggest customers who were offended by the music.  Last year the government of Baha, California implemented a policy that prohibited the playing of the music.  Some social commentators contend  that big business’ and big government’s efforts  to curtail the narcos corridos will only  make the music more popular the more popular they become.