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Peer Review

Musica de la Frontera

Reviewed:

Jun 18, 2009 by World Languages
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 3.8 stars
Content Quality: 3.5 stars
Effectiveness: 3.8 stars
Ease of Use: 3.8 stars
Overview:

“The Frontera Collection” contains approximately 30,000 audio files of songs of three periods of Mexican and Mexican American vernacular music. Through the site, the user has free access to digital audio clips of the first 50-seconds of each song which can be played on RealPlayer. However, due to copyright restrictions the user must be on the UCLA campus to access the complete songs. The majority of the recordings date between 1905 and 1955 and, as the site states, “document many types of popular lyric songs, including the first recordings of corridos (narrative ballads on topics of the day), canciones, boleros, rancheras, and sones, as well as many types of instrumental music, including the first recordings of norteño and conjunto music.” On the site, the user can easily browse the materials by author name, genre, subject (in Spanish or English), or do an advanced search of materials by keyword (love, war), genre and/or label. The collection is impressive and well organized with high quality digital clips of very old recordings of songs that as the site states are “the foundation for Latino music today.” Unfortunately for the user, there is very little musical, historical or cultural background information on the site. The recordings have only recently been made public with the help of the project sponsors, which include the Los Tigres del Norte Fund at UCLA, the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, and the Fund for Folk Culture.
Type of Material:

Collection
Recommended Uses:

Students could be instructed to compare and contrast genres, authors or themes of the various audio clips. Students could use the audio clips as reference and then write their own “corridos,” “boleros,” or “rancheras” basing content on the content found in the song clips from the site. It would be a great way to further explore the Mexican American experience in the US in the first half of the twentieth century. The recordings can be used for input in the classroom and/or be assigned as "listening" homework. They may be used to supplement lessons on history, politics, culture or grammar.
Technical Requirements:

Audio capability is required. All links and audio work well in Safari and Firefox. The 50-second audio samples require RealPlayer, which can be downloaded for free.
Identify Major Learning Goals:

The Web site provides instructors and students a vast array of original recordings, many of which cannot be found elsewhere. Discussion of the songs can easily raise cultural awareness, including issues related to identity and making comparisons between musical traditions of various ethnic groups or nationalities.The user will develop a deeper understanding of the tradition and the amplitude of Mexican and Mexican American vernacular music.
Target Student Population:

College level music history class; Mexican American culture, music, or history class; College level Spanish culture or language class:High school and college or university students.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Pre-requisites will vary depending on the assignment. However, the breadth of songs enables the site to be used in introductory to graduate-level courses.Previous knowledge of traditional Mexican and/or Mexican American music would be very beneficial for the user.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

• Each song is completely digitized and 50-second audio clips can be heard of most songs for free via RealPlayer. • The audio quality of the 50-second clips is very impressive, especially when the age and state of the original recording is taken into consideration. • The collection is very interesting and allows access to 2,164 genres and 19,090 authors of traditional Mexican and Mexican American music that was previously unavailable to the general public. The strengths of the site include the breadth of the collection, the ability to search the recordings in several ways and the diversity of the music itself. Under "browse" the user can search the recordings by genre, subject, label or name (of artist). Some subject headings appear in Spanish and English. To search for specific songs, the “search” feature at the top of the page is most helpful. The collection is not limited to strictly traditional Mexican songs and dances, but rather reflects a diverse array of international music. There are numerous “danzas” and “bailes”, including tangos, jotas and mambos as well as samples from other musical traditions including blues and Afro-Cuban songs. The subject matter of the songs ranges from abuse and war to nature and immigration. Additionally, there are 19,274 songs under the heading “amor”, with 23 different types of love songs, including “amor perdido” and “amor, declaración de.
Concerns:

The recordings available to non-UCLA users abruptly end after fifty seconds. Access to full-length recordings would be optimal. The user cannot browse by song title from the “browse collection.” Similarly, the advanced search is very restrictive, not allowing the user to type in his or her own words. Instead, the user must choose from a drop-down menu. It would be useful to include the e-mail address of a Webmaster to whom users could submit edits. The minor errors I found include a missing accent mark from "música" in the grey italicized font at the top of the photographs on the home page. Under “Los Tigres Del Norte Foundation” the first sentence should read “Los Tigres Del Norte are the undisputed legends or ‘Los Jefes de Jefes’ of Norteño music” (without an apostrophe on “Jefes”). Also, "naturaleza" is misspelled in the "subject" search

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

• This collection provides the user with audio clips of songs that were previously unavailable to the general public. • User can open a pop-up window to see the detail of the front and the back of the record. Specific information is available for each entry, including subject topics in Spanish and English (love, war, etc.), performer and recording information, genre, and other pertinent locator information.
Concerns:

• The collection contains little historical information about the songs. The only links within the site are to provide the user with information about the sponsors who have helped to create the collection. • The quantity of audio available would be overwhelming to a student who is simply browsing. • If the user is not on the UCLA campus, then they would not be able to access the complete recordings. In “The Collection” under “About the Project”, the writer refers to the distinct eras of the recordings housed in the Strachwitz Frontera Collection from which the digitized copies were made, such as “the early-twentieth century recordings” and “late-twentieth century” section. It would be useful to categorize the recordings by year or general time period in addition to genre, etc. No specific dates are provided for the recordings, however.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

• The materials are very well organized. The user can easily browse the collection by author name, genre, subject, and label. As of review date, the collection includes 2,164 genres and 19,090 author names. User can also do an advanced search of materials by keyword, genre and/or label.
Concerns:

• Due to copyright issues, the complete songs are accessible only on the campus at UCLA. Other users can access 50-second clips of the majority of the collection. While the photographs are aesthetically pleasing, they are not interactive. It would be helpful if the user could click on them to gain information about the people in the photographs or read general background information about music from the Mexican-US border.
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