It is hard to classify early the Mexican pop group, Timbiriche as Top 40 music because it truly was more dedicated to kids. This album, when you look back in time, gets lumped with Chiquilladas and Cri-Cri versus Yuri and Menudo, who were performing pop music. They hitting the actual pop charts with music but children’s music wasn’t. Even though it was pop music, “infantile” music wasn’t Top 40.
In 1982, the world was learning about the group that would dominate Mexican pop radio in the coming years. They are synonymous with Latin pop music and I don’t know if there is a person in Mexico who doesn’t know who Timbiriche. This is not the version of the group that had 5-7 Top 40 songs off of one album. I am talking about the little 8-10-year-olds, dressed in blue and yellow jumping all of the stage performing songs about first love, cats that can rock out, a day in the country, and having a party at Mariana’s house. It’s the themes of the songs that push this album into the kid’s genre versus the general top 40 category.
Even though I am a year away from my Latin pop crazy, I am still four years away from learning about Timbiriche. My experience with this album was definitely an after product. I have to look at it objectively. I mean, how many theme songs does one group need on a single album. The song “Somos Amigos” has the group introducing themselves, plus we have the theme song, “Timbiriche,” which has become an anthem for the group.
Electric guitars and drums filled the album which puts it in line with many albums at the same time. The song, “El Gato Rocanrolero” is musically comparable to Menudo’s “A Bailar” from the same era. But Timbiriche sounds like kids, Menudo sounded like teens. Even though the music dated, it is hard to jam out in your car with the windows down in traffic, though I am sure I did that in the ’80s when I learned to drive. Now, not so much… Okay, maybe with the windows up.
No matter how old Timbiriche was, the music was fun but it isn’t something that is a musical masterpiece. The album was originally self-titled but when Melody Records reissued this album it has changed to “Somos Amigos”.
Since that day, I have been study Latin pop and rock music and have become a Latin pop music historian through the publishing of articles, fanzine, and websites. My goal is to teach people about Latin pop music and the history behind it with my website, Siempre En Domingo.
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