And, like much on Wikipedia, it suffers from generalizations and amplifications of truth. The term may have been used in certain places for a while, but it is not a substitute for Reggaeton. Its originator was let go soon after and pretty much disappeared from the radio and music industry in any position of importance. The article seems more focused on his supposed no achievement, then the format itself or its music.
And we know that mega had to change format to a more AC one given the failure of their initial Reggaeton based format.
Mexican Cumbia’s started with the Sonora Santanera back in the late 50s and early 60s, particularly when singer Sonia Lopez joined the band. The music was always working class. It became popular and big cities because large dance halls could afford to present those huge orchestras that played Cumbia‘s back in that era.
I went to a number of Cumbia dances when I lived in Mexico City in 1963 and was interned at the group that included Radio AI “Canal Tropical”. The audience was very definitely composed mostly of C2 working class as those in classes D and E could not afford the admission. Further, the music was hugely popular on the Gulf Coast all the way from Villahermosa to the Mexican American border.
I owned several all Cumbia stations in Ecuador in the later 60s and they played a blend of Colombian and Mexican Cumbia, which appealed very strictly to middle class listeners.
In any case, the Cumbia is a very small part of regional Mexican as a radio format group.
I did not know anyone is doing any gatekeeping of the genre. In various occasions over the last three decades or so fringe genres of both Norteña and Banda music have matured and become incorporated into the broader mass of appeal formats.
In the case of “urban“ music, we did indeed see that form originate in black neighborhoods of inner cities across America. Regional Mexican on the other hand is a term invented by non-Hispanic Anglo record store owners decades ago so that they could put some type of heading on the section in their stores that carried Ranchera and Norteña music. Because those store owners and their one stop suppliers really did not understand the music types. They created a name that covered everything that was not Spanish language pop or older, romantic music… or in some markets, things like salsa and merengue.
