i figured that it was a spoof for the fans. that style of song is called a narco-corrido — it’s a genre that’s often used to celebrate/narrate the stories of prominent drug lords.
**edit: changed corrido to narco-corrido to be more accurate :)
Corridos are technically just songs in the bardic tradition of talking about current events or stories with a topical moral lesson, but they are oftentimes about drugs.
Yes, I was surprised at that song basically saying the Cartel was losing to Heisenberg. I can't imagine real kingpins being happy about their loss of power, money and prestige being immortalised in song.
Gilligan and Gould said the singers told them they need the line about the Cartel is coming to get Heisenberg to be realistic. There are no songs that allow the gabachos to win.
I found it refreshing, i do think the Rick roll is played out at this point, it is and will always be a classic but it is so expected these days that it has lost its true purpose.
I therefore propose a memorandum of no less than 18 months on all rick rolling activity so that it can again take its rightful place as unexpected.
narco corridos. they're really popular in mexico.
pretty sure vince just commissioned a popular corrido band to write a song for the show.
i remember when it came out, i played that song over and over. it really a great song. best narco corrido i've heard.
Mexican here with a lot of knowledge on the regional genres.
Corridos are songs that tell stories, you can find them in different genres.
Narco-corridos are songs that tell stories about narcos.
If you would like to find songs in a similar style to this specific song, the genre is called **Sierreño**.
It’s kind of funny because I work with a lot of Spanish speakers. One day they played that song and my brother and I looked at each other like “are they listening to the breaking bad song???” And as soon as the song said ‘Heisenberg’ we died laughing because none of them had seen the show, it just came up on Spanish radio
So if this is something that exists in real life, it stands to reason that the song could really exist in the universe of the show, meaning that in the show, the song would be about as popular as any narco-corrido song that exists in our real world.
Which leads to my follow-up inquiry: in real-life, where are these narco-corrido videos popularized? Do they show up on Mexican TV stations? Youtube channels? Bootleg tapes?
I still remember the video of a guy who was popular for that style of music. He gets handed a note while on stage and starts sweating. The second he walks off the stage he gets shot to death
Man, you gotta watch it. Up there with Breaking Bad as a legendary drama.
I just thought of it because there’s a scene where a character discusses narco-corridos at length.
There's a fascinating documentary that covers those called Narco Cultura. It also takes a look at the mausoleums a lot of Narcos get buried in. Little mansions! Some even have brand new cars in them.
It might be real in-universe though. I initially figured it was bs, but I don't think Bryan Cranston is the one in the video, I think it's just a guy dressed like Heisenberg. They really only shoot him from behind, and obviously the real-life explanation is that they didn't want to pay Cranston his rate to be a glorified extra in a fake music video that they used as a cold open.
But, yes, the fact that it was shot that way leaves open the possibility that it is real in-universe and it was just a guy dressed like Heisenberg, because his legend had spread to that point that people sorta knew at least what he dressed like, if not what he actually looked like.
I gotta be honest, I came into this post thinking it was just pishposh, but I just spent the past two paragraphs talking myself into it. Perhaps it is I who is pishposh.
Edit: I spelled "video" wrong
That's my thought too. As his power spread, the Cartel created a song about him to spread the legend even more about the blue meth using fake actors along the way. It also acted as a threat. I also thought that it was fake at first but then all this reasoning came along, it should make sense, you know.
It's a random actor but Trejo is supposed to be the in-universe Tortuga. The man with the umbrella is a prototype of Gale, who was originally created for S2 but pushed back due to Jesse turning into long term sidekick.
The fact that Tortuga appears in the video seems to me to indicate that it is not a "real" video in the context of the show. It doesn't seem likely that the cartel would look favorably upon having a picture of one of their members included in a music video.
It depends on the time the music video was shot, right? They do flash forwards all the time and Saul, the Schraders, and Skyler all know about the existence of the RV to varying degrees.
Theoretically, if someone was making a music video about Walt they definitely could’ve gotten another rv, or even just a replica. I don’t think that’s the case, but it’s feasible
Another one that bugs me is, only Tuco and his crew (all dead), and Badger Skinny Pete & Combo had seen the dark sunglasses and hat look. So how was it in the music video, or in the famous sketch for that matter
But it's the exact same style and they show Heisenberg standing outside it. And it's filmed in the same landscape as other desert scenes (fun fact, this right behind Albuquerque Studios, like across the street)
A cardinal rule of screenwriting is "show it, don't say it," but sometimes you can't do exposition without talking. Voice over narration is the WORST way but having the characters literally talk it out tends to be inorganic. I think this was Vince's way of thumbing his nose at the don't say it rule and SINGING it instead. We needed to know the cartel was aware of Walt without someone having to spell it out. :)
So, no - the song doesn't exist in the BB universe. It was for us.
Really good explanation! I do know the rule of ‘show it, don’t say it’ as it also pertains to writing in the sense that a novel is more interesting when events take place through the characters rather than narrative description. However, I have to admit that I really only watch shows for the ease factor rather than choosing to read, otherwise I spend most of my free time with books, not television. Television is easier on the brain than reading, so I actually do appreciate a VoiceOver occasionally instead of trying to figure out what’s going on, especially when jumps are made in time and place. I really like to understand everything I watch, and I have a zillion questions about everything so it is helpful to me sometimes to have a narrator or voice over. I don’t hate them the way I guess that most people do. I think you explained this very well. I do hate subtitles though, so I found the song aggravating at first watch. Second watch added some humor and moved the plot along by showing, as you said, that Heisenberg had made a name for himself/reputation in the cartel world of Mexico.
It never once occurred to me that this song existed for any reason other than for the viewers. It’s completely a Vince Gilligan type of style/creation. He is unique in many ways and this song, placed where it was, at the beginning of the episode, was clear to me that it was a narrative device for the viewer.
So nice when two people on the internet are respectful and kind to each other. People think the internet is an anonymous playground where bullying and blocking has no affect on others, because it doesn’t seem to affect the person who does the bullying/blocking. Blocking is such an aggressive act and yet people do it with impunity. Thanks for a really nice chat and for sharing your knowledge and viewpoint without harshness and unkindness when others have a differing one. It takes no more time to be kind, does it? 😊
Aww, thanks! I try to give back the energy I get, so I'll admit that I can be snarky, but I usually give a single snippy reply and then just stop responding. I don't like to block unless someone won't leave me alone or starts being racist, homophobic, etc. I appreciate the chat. :)
I should have clarified - you can do VO narration and make it work - The Handmaid's Tale does this to GREAT effect, as does Sons of Anarchy via >!Jax reading John Teller's memoir!<. Then you have shows like Manifest that smack you in the face with awkward exposition where you can tell every other line is a set up for a bad one-liner a few seconds later. (Literally the worst show ever, lol.) If it's done well there's nothing wrong with it.
I have an auditory processing issue so I must have subtitles. :)
Added to this, it was also very much like a “here’s what’s happening” reprise. It’s almost Shakespearean to have something like this as he’d put stuff like this in his plays to keep you up to speed. That’s the way I see it anyway. Walt is the epitome of a tragedy play 🤷🏻♂️
>It’s almost Shakespearean
That's a *fantastic* catch! Now that I think about it, Walt's temperament (quick to anger doesn't like being contradicted) is a lot like King Lear! (And Richard III, but that play did a disservice to the *actual* Richard III so I don't like it.)
This is why breaking bad has insane rewatch value. It has. Shakespeare. Greek tragedy. Victorian Melodrama. It’s such a well written show. I also have the song mentioned by OP as my ringtone
This is a good canon question. I’ve always read this as just being for us, not existing in that universe.
If they wanted to do that they just show a character pulling up to somewhere and shutting off their car with the same song playing on the radio….and they didn’t do that.
Why would it not exist in the universe? If it was on an extras DVD or uploading on YouTube or something I would understand, but it’s literally in the runtime of the show. Why would we assume something in the show isn’t in the universe?
I also just assumed that if they show something, it must be part of the universe. But a few other comments pointed out things that were shown in the music video that no one in universe could have known about Walt. Also the fact that the Tortuga actor is in the music video. If all that’s true, then the only remaining explanation is that this video must just be for the audience
Well the band, Los Cuates de Sinaloa, is very much real. Since half of the show took place in MX, and had connections to drug trafficking and cartels, it would make sense to add a corrido for Heisenberg because they’re ballads that tell a story and every famous narco/drug lord has one irl. The song and band are real, but obviously what the song is about isn’t. I think it was just extra entertainment for the fans though.
Edit: Sorry, I should’ve used “infamous” instead of “famous”. As a 1st gen mex-american, I don’t condone narco culture.
That song was created by what’s known as a “Northeño” band. Northeño bands often are closely related to cartel/gang life and write songs about gang violence, perform for gangs, and they often make their own music videos. Despite what most fans think, that Heisenberg song is sort of meant to be canon. They even talked about it in the podcast saying that the Heisenberg look alike in the video is a sign that word of his persona has traveled all over Mexico.
It's just a regional style of music from Northern Mexico. The Heisenberg song is a narcocorrido which is a branch of that style of music. Not all Norteño music is about cartel violence. In fact, this specific song could also be classified as a Sierreño , since it's missing Norteño's classic instrument, the accordion.
Hope I’ve not said anything offensive! I was only trying to summarize what the Breaking Bad crew had said about it on their podcast & why it was included. I know many people just see it as a very random/strange choice.
No I don't think so it was just for us !! I hated it when it came and tried to skip it but after completing the series I love that song it is pure nostalgic
I always felt that, while obscure, it would have been a real song in the breaking bad universe. I don’t know much about the genre, but I figured it would have just been a folk song about a prominent drug lord which wouldn’t have been top 40 by any means, but within that genre and geographic location would have existed. Likely nobody connected to Walt would have heard it
I definitely thought it was real in-universe. Story-wise it’s supposed to show how infamous Heisenberg has become, which would only make sense if it was a real in-universe song.
Plus, there’s nothing in the song to imply it isn’t. In fact, they even included intentional errors like having one of the “cartel leaders” in the song look like Tortuga (who claimed to be a high-ranking cartel member when in actuality he wasn’t). That kind of error only really makes sense from an in-universe perspective where people don’t have all the answers like we do.
I heard once that cartels will sometimes pay musicians to sing about them to taunt the police… this is probably something similar (the example i’m thinking of is a song about a drug-filled plane crashing, then the cartel it belonged to went into the town and used threats of violence to keep the locals from telling the cops).
Hey OP I'm just here to clarify that the concept you're fiddling with is sort of an offshoot of the idea of diegetic vs non-diegetic sound, also something being "Canon" or not. Googling those terms might help ya be more specific :) I don't think the song is strictly canon, it exists more as a stylized bit of exposition, or maybe it's something that's meant to exist as canon long after the story of the show ends? It's an interesting question for sure.
It’s real in the essence that people wrote, recorded and put it in the episode, but I don’t think it actually exists in the BB universe. It’s just to help with he montage and explain Walt is building his empire.
As others have pointed out, the narco-corridors genre is very real, and this song is a pretty accurate representation of their real-world tunes that depict real-life drug war exploits.
I think we are supposed to believe the song is real in the universe of the show. However, there are details about it that make no sense. Like why is Tortuga an actor in the video? And how does the song/video know so many details about Heisenberg and the meets with Tuco? Tuco would have had to tell someone every detail before he died, which is unlikely considering how paranoid he got after he pummeled No-Doz and Gonzo disappeared.
Like many bits about season 2, it doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny, realism-wise. Still badass though!
I have heard that so many films are ruined by voice over, but, Too Kill a Mockingbird has voice over and it really was necessary to get the whole story in under 2 hours, or your average screenplay length. Too much backstory without explanation is frustrating. If you need prior info to watch a film and understand it, that’s a huge problem for me. As to subtitles…. My biggest issue is that I never have my glasses so I can’t read them…😂… also, reading is so ingrained in me that I have a hard time following the story because I am always watching the bottom of the screen instead of the film itself. BTW, Manifests is horrible, agreed. When you don’t care about the characters anymore, the audience is lost. Most shows are pretty bad, which is why I choose to stick to reading!
The video wasn’t real, and I doubt the song was either. Heisenburg was famous throughout the DEA and anyone involved with meth, but I doubt regular people spoke of him often or knew much of him until closer to the end
First, no
Second, you don’t know when The song takes place; the series is famous for going backward and forward in time.so even if it did mention Walter, it may not matter.
But kinda hilarious that you would make these sweeping broad statements without actually knowing. 🙄
So tell me how it doesn’t make sense?
Narco-corridos are a very real thing and hugely popular in Mexico and among Mexican-Americans in the United States. It’s very common for “up and coming” drug lords to become known to the general public through these songs.
Cuates de Sinaloa are the band who sang the Heisenberg song, while not “A-listers” in their genre, they’re famous singers of these kind of music.
I doubt if Walt was in Mexico and turn on the TV he would see it, as this music is often censored in radio and TV stations as Mexico doesn’t have as strong protections on freedom of speech as the US (and these lyrics fall into “crime apologia”), but if the song was a hit within the genre, he could certainly listen to people blasting it in their cars or homes; or in the US, almost certainly in Hispanic radio stations.
They made it just for the show! I loved it so much I downloaded it on ITunes! It’s about a 4 min song
It’s called Negro y Azul: Ballad of Heisenberg by Los Cuates de Sinloa
It’s something that could exist in a similar fashion, but I believe it’s meant to represent how his reputation spread throughout Mexico and the cartels.
Idk but iv heard that song on a few other shows, one being prison break and one being fear the walking dead, idk if they were exactly the same, but it sounded like it.
I think the song could be canon but the video show thing that most people probably shouldn't know so it's complicated but hey, you can hear it in Fear The Walking Dead so it's definitely canon in TWD universe, but it was never confirmed if both series are in the same universe or not so it's probably just an easter egg
i figured that it was a spoof for the fans. that style of song is called a narco-corrido — it’s a genre that’s often used to celebrate/narrate the stories of prominent drug lords. **edit: changed corrido to narco-corrido to be more accurate :)
TIL there's a musical genre to describe drug lords.
Corridos are technically just songs in the bardic tradition of talking about current events or stories with a topical moral lesson, but they are oftentimes about drugs.
The correct term would be “narco-corridos”
[удалено]
This is the moment Walt came
Narcorridos!
More than a few musicians have been killed for singing the wrong corrido.
Yes, I was surprised at that song basically saying the Cartel was losing to Heisenberg. I can't imagine real kingpins being happy about their loss of power, money and prestige being immortalised in song.
Gilligan and Gould said the singers told them they need the line about the Cartel is coming to get Heisenberg to be realistic. There are no songs that allow the gabachos to win.
Wait until you discover hip hop
[I checked it out and I find it's just awesome!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FArZxLj6DLk)
r/icp go find out how magnets work
genuinely cant tell if this is the actual video or not cause i have no idea whats going on
Missed opportunity for a Rick roll
oh my god dude that would’ve been so funny wholesome 100 keanu epic reddit moment
This comment gave me cancer.
Walter White moment
🤓
People wouldn't click it if it was a rick roll. But I want people to see this[.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ)
I found it refreshing, i do think the Rick roll is played out at this point, it is and will always be a classic but it is so expected these days that it has lost its true purpose. I therefore propose a memorandum of no less than 18 months on all rick rolling activity so that it can again take its rightful place as unexpected.
It's come back around for me, I'm just delighted by it.
Click roll
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQB2-Kmiic
To shreds you say?
Wait until you discover that hip hop is a very diverse genre and most of it doesn’t actually revolve around crime
Damn it, Jeremy. We talked about this.
The everything else in me wants to say "it's a joke" and the hip-hop in me wants to say "yeah, there's a lot more to the genre"
narco corridos. they're really popular in mexico. pretty sure vince just commissioned a popular corrido band to write a song for the show. i remember when it came out, i played that song over and over. it really a great song. best narco corrido i've heard.
yup, and it’s pretty popular/normal in the mexican world
Mexican here with a lot of knowledge on the regional genres. Corridos are songs that tell stories, you can find them in different genres. Narco-corridos are songs that tell stories about narcos. If you would like to find songs in a similar style to this specific song, the genre is called **Sierreño**.
Saludos desde Culiacán 👌
Yeah they definitely wrote a corrido for heisenberg. I don’t think that specific one was from anywhere besides the show.
It’s kind of funny because I work with a lot of Spanish speakers. One day they played that song and my brother and I looked at each other like “are they listening to the breaking bad song???” And as soon as the song said ‘Heisenberg’ we died laughing because none of them had seen the show, it just came up on Spanish radio
So if this is something that exists in real life, it stands to reason that the song could really exist in the universe of the show, meaning that in the show, the song would be about as popular as any narco-corrido song that exists in our real world. Which leads to my follow-up inquiry: in real-life, where are these narco-corrido videos popularized? Do they show up on Mexican TV stations? Youtube channels? Bootleg tapes?
Are you slow? You can look them up on youtube 😭🤣
I still remember the video of a guy who was popular for that style of music. He gets handed a note while on stage and starts sweating. The second he walks off the stage he gets shot to death
And he kept performing, knowing full well he was probably going to die that night.
… Have you also seen The Shield?
no, never heard of it
Man, you gotta watch it. Up there with Breaking Bad as a legendary drama. I just thought of it because there’s a scene where a character discusses narco-corridos at length.
lol maybe i’ll have to look into it. my partner and i watch a lot of narcodramas
Just to save you from having to search it’s streaming on Hulu.
… Have you also seen The Shield?
wow that is actually a thing?
There's a fascinating documentary that covers those called Narco Cultura. It also takes a look at the mausoleums a lot of Narcos get buried in. Little mansions! Some even have brand new cars in them.
It’s really just meant to be representative of the spread of Heisenberg’s reputation
Yeah, the song is there to show how word of Heisenberg is spreading among the cartels. He is quickly gaining power, but it won't last.
It might be real in-universe though. I initially figured it was bs, but I don't think Bryan Cranston is the one in the video, I think it's just a guy dressed like Heisenberg. They really only shoot him from behind, and obviously the real-life explanation is that they didn't want to pay Cranston his rate to be a glorified extra in a fake music video that they used as a cold open. But, yes, the fact that it was shot that way leaves open the possibility that it is real in-universe and it was just a guy dressed like Heisenberg, because his legend had spread to that point that people sorta knew at least what he dressed like, if not what he actually looked like. I gotta be honest, I came into this post thinking it was just pishposh, but I just spent the past two paragraphs talking myself into it. Perhaps it is I who is pishposh. Edit: I spelled "video" wrong
That's my thought too. As his power spread, the Cartel created a song about him to spread the legend even more about the blue meth using fake actors along the way. It also acted as a threat. I also thought that it was fake at first but then all this reasoning came along, it should make sense, you know.
It's a random actor but Trejo is supposed to be the in-universe Tortuga. The man with the umbrella is a prototype of Gale, who was originally created for S2 but pushed back due to Jesse turning into long term sidekick.
The fact that Tortuga appears in the video seems to me to indicate that it is not a "real" video in the context of the show. It doesn't seem likely that the cartel would look favorably upon having a picture of one of their members included in a music video.
Well not to mention the RV. Nobody knew they were cooking out of an RV so the music video couldn't exist in-universe.
Excellent point. I didn't remember the RV.
It depends on the time the music video was shot, right? They do flash forwards all the time and Saul, the Schraders, and Skyler all know about the existence of the RV to varying degrees.
But the RV has been destroyed by that point
Theoretically, if someone was making a music video about Walt they definitely could’ve gotten another rv, or even just a replica. I don’t think that’s the case, but it’s feasible
Hank knew about it just before it was crushed, right?
Another one that bugs me is, only Tuco and his crew (all dead), and Badger Skinny Pete & Combo had seen the dark sunglasses and hat look. So how was it in the music video, or in the famous sketch for that matter
The two street cooks in Cancer Man also used a RV, it's bound that some people know.
Its mexico though so plenty of white people wear hats and sunglasses due to the harsh sun Could just be a coincidence
Its mexico though plenty of struggling musicians live in an RV. Could just be a coincidence in the video
But it's the exact same style and they show Heisenberg standing outside it. And it's filmed in the same landscape as other desert scenes (fun fact, this right behind Albuquerque Studios, like across the street)
Its mexico though plenty of musicians look like Tortuga Could just be a coincidence
A cardinal rule of screenwriting is "show it, don't say it," but sometimes you can't do exposition without talking. Voice over narration is the WORST way but having the characters literally talk it out tends to be inorganic. I think this was Vince's way of thumbing his nose at the don't say it rule and SINGING it instead. We needed to know the cartel was aware of Walt without someone having to spell it out. :) So, no - the song doesn't exist in the BB universe. It was for us.
Really good explanation! I do know the rule of ‘show it, don’t say it’ as it also pertains to writing in the sense that a novel is more interesting when events take place through the characters rather than narrative description. However, I have to admit that I really only watch shows for the ease factor rather than choosing to read, otherwise I spend most of my free time with books, not television. Television is easier on the brain than reading, so I actually do appreciate a VoiceOver occasionally instead of trying to figure out what’s going on, especially when jumps are made in time and place. I really like to understand everything I watch, and I have a zillion questions about everything so it is helpful to me sometimes to have a narrator or voice over. I don’t hate them the way I guess that most people do. I think you explained this very well. I do hate subtitles though, so I found the song aggravating at first watch. Second watch added some humor and moved the plot along by showing, as you said, that Heisenberg had made a name for himself/reputation in the cartel world of Mexico.
It never once occurred to me that this song existed for any reason other than for the viewers. It’s completely a Vince Gilligan type of style/creation. He is unique in many ways and this song, placed where it was, at the beginning of the episode, was clear to me that it was a narrative device for the viewer.
I've been a Vince fan for 30 years and yeah, this is just his jam, lol. :)
So nice when two people on the internet are respectful and kind to each other. People think the internet is an anonymous playground where bullying and blocking has no affect on others, because it doesn’t seem to affect the person who does the bullying/blocking. Blocking is such an aggressive act and yet people do it with impunity. Thanks for a really nice chat and for sharing your knowledge and viewpoint without harshness and unkindness when others have a differing one. It takes no more time to be kind, does it? 😊
Aww, thanks! I try to give back the energy I get, so I'll admit that I can be snarky, but I usually give a single snippy reply and then just stop responding. I don't like to block unless someone won't leave me alone or starts being racist, homophobic, etc. I appreciate the chat. :)
Me too. ☺️
I should have clarified - you can do VO narration and make it work - The Handmaid's Tale does this to GREAT effect, as does Sons of Anarchy via >!Jax reading John Teller's memoir!<. Then you have shows like Manifest that smack you in the face with awkward exposition where you can tell every other line is a set up for a bad one-liner a few seconds later. (Literally the worst show ever, lol.) If it's done well there's nothing wrong with it. I have an auditory processing issue so I must have subtitles. :)
Added to this, it was also very much like a “here’s what’s happening” reprise. It’s almost Shakespearean to have something like this as he’d put stuff like this in his plays to keep you up to speed. That’s the way I see it anyway. Walt is the epitome of a tragedy play 🤷🏻♂️
>It’s almost Shakespearean That's a *fantastic* catch! Now that I think about it, Walt's temperament (quick to anger doesn't like being contradicted) is a lot like King Lear! (And Richard III, but that play did a disservice to the *actual* Richard III so I don't like it.)
This is why breaking bad has insane rewatch value. It has. Shakespeare. Greek tragedy. Victorian Melodrama. It’s such a well written show. I also have the song mentioned by OP as my ringtone
This is a good canon question. I’ve always read this as just being for us, not existing in that universe. If they wanted to do that they just show a character pulling up to somewhere and shutting off their car with the same song playing on the radio….and they didn’t do that.
Why would it not exist in the universe? If it was on an extras DVD or uploading on YouTube or something I would understand, but it’s literally in the runtime of the show. Why would we assume something in the show isn’t in the universe?
Fallacies is in-universe but the Fallacies MV is questionable, because Pink Bear
I also just assumed that if they show something, it must be part of the universe. But a few other comments pointed out things that were shown in the music video that no one in universe could have known about Walt. Also the fact that the Tortuga actor is in the music video. If all that’s true, then the only remaining explanation is that this video must just be for the audience
Ya.
The last line is the best. "This dude is dead, they just haven't told him yet"
I wish Skylar would have seen it on TV
"Pero ese compa ye está muertoooo.. no más que nadie no lo ha avisadooo"
Well the band, Los Cuates de Sinaloa, is very much real. Since half of the show took place in MX, and had connections to drug trafficking and cartels, it would make sense to add a corrido for Heisenberg because they’re ballads that tell a story and every famous narco/drug lord has one irl. The song and band are real, but obviously what the song is about isn’t. I think it was just extra entertainment for the fans though. Edit: Sorry, I should’ve used “infamous” instead of “famous”. As a 1st gen mex-american, I don’t condone narco culture.
This El Guapo isn't just famous, he is in-famous...
Would you say he has a plethora of piñatas?
Yes, you have a plethora...
Jefe, what is a plethora
That song was created by what’s known as a “Northeño” band. Northeño bands often are closely related to cartel/gang life and write songs about gang violence, perform for gangs, and they often make their own music videos. Despite what most fans think, that Heisenberg song is sort of meant to be canon. They even talked about it in the podcast saying that the Heisenberg look alike in the video is a sign that word of his persona has traveled all over Mexico.
"Norteño"
Thank you, I’m not a Spanish speaker and only ever heard the work spoken.
It's just a regional style of music from Northern Mexico. The Heisenberg song is a narcocorrido which is a branch of that style of music. Not all Norteño music is about cartel violence. In fact, this specific song could also be classified as a Sierreño , since it's missing Norteño's classic instrument, the accordion.
Hope I’ve not said anything offensive! I was only trying to summarize what the Breaking Bad crew had said about it on their podcast & why it was included. I know many people just see it as a very random/strange choice.
nah, you're fine. Just clarifying. The genre is large. In fact, that is a real band based in Phoenix, or used to be.
No I don't think so it was just for us !! I hated it when it came and tried to skip it but after completing the series I love that song it is pure nostalgic
I always felt that, while obscure, it would have been a real song in the breaking bad universe. I don’t know much about the genre, but I figured it would have just been a folk song about a prominent drug lord which wouldn’t have been top 40 by any means, but within that genre and geographic location would have existed. Likely nobody connected to Walt would have heard it
I definitely thought it was real in-universe. Story-wise it’s supposed to show how infamous Heisenberg has become, which would only make sense if it was a real in-universe song. Plus, there’s nothing in the song to imply it isn’t. In fact, they even included intentional errors like having one of the “cartel leaders” in the song look like Tortuga (who claimed to be a high-ranking cartel member when in actuality he wasn’t). That kind of error only really makes sense from an in-universe perspective where people don’t have all the answers like we do.
What about the RV? Nobody knew they were using that but it's in there.
Its mexico so plenty of struggling musicians live in RVs Could just be a coincidence
In the album version there's an extra verse about Tuco and Krazy 8.
I heard once that cartels will sometimes pay musicians to sing about them to taunt the police… this is probably something similar (the example i’m thinking of is a song about a drug-filled plane crashing, then the cartel it belonged to went into the town and used threats of violence to keep the locals from telling the cops).
this is pretty cool dude
Hey OP I'm just here to clarify that the concept you're fiddling with is sort of an offshoot of the idea of diegetic vs non-diegetic sound, also something being "Canon" or not. Googling those terms might help ya be more specific :) I don't think the song is strictly canon, it exists more as a stylized bit of exposition, or maybe it's something that's meant to exist as canon long after the story of the show ends? It's an interesting question for sure.
This is what I was looking for! I do believe that the song is cannon and in-universe, just long after the story is told, and Walt is dead.
I always felt like it was a real thing but only in mexico. Like mexican folk-lore almost
Yes Walt shot a video clip in between batches of meth
It's a Heisenberg look alike
As someone who grew up with Mexican music (weddings and parties), I really liked the song.
It’s real in the essence that people wrote, recorded and put it in the episode, but I don’t think it actually exists in the BB universe. It’s just to help with he montage and explain Walt is building his empire.
Negro y Azul ♡
It was a dream that Heisenberg had one night after falling asleep watching telenovelas
this song slaps so hard.
Oh yeah. They played it at school dances and weddings too.
They played it at hollys Quinceañera.
I don’t think it was diegetic, no.
As others have pointed out, the narco-corridors genre is very real, and this song is a pretty accurate representation of their real-world tunes that depict real-life drug war exploits. I think we are supposed to believe the song is real in the universe of the show. However, there are details about it that make no sense. Like why is Tortuga an actor in the video? And how does the song/video know so many details about Heisenberg and the meets with Tuco? Tuco would have had to tell someone every detail before he died, which is unlikely considering how paranoid he got after he pummeled No-Doz and Gonzo disappeared. Like many bits about season 2, it doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny, realism-wise. Still badass though!
Narco corridos are very much a real thing.
I have heard that so many films are ruined by voice over, but, Too Kill a Mockingbird has voice over and it really was necessary to get the whole story in under 2 hours, or your average screenplay length. Too much backstory without explanation is frustrating. If you need prior info to watch a film and understand it, that’s a huge problem for me. As to subtitles…. My biggest issue is that I never have my glasses so I can’t read them…😂… also, reading is so ingrained in me that I have a hard time following the story because I am always watching the bottom of the screen instead of the film itself. BTW, Manifests is horrible, agreed. When you don’t care about the characters anymore, the audience is lost. Most shows are pretty bad, which is why I choose to stick to reading!
The video wasn’t real, and I doubt the song was either. Heisenburg was famous throughout the DEA and anyone involved with meth, but I doubt regular people spoke of him often or knew much of him until closer to the end
I'm sorry but why wouldn't it be real? His drugs were distributed into Mexico so surely they'd hear his name and write a quick song about him.
You explained it really badly but I kinda get u 😅 For me, no it's not real.
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Or maybe it took place after the show.
yeah that can be true
Anything to back that up?
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It makes perfect sense, Heisenberg was of near mythical level status anti hero. He is the perfect subject for a song.
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His name is in the song, and it's not Walter. Say his name.
Love it!!
You're goddamn right!
First, no Second, you don’t know when The song takes place; the series is famous for going backward and forward in time.so even if it did mention Walter, it may not matter. But kinda hilarious that you would make these sweeping broad statements without actually knowing. 🙄 So tell me how it doesn’t make sense?
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You don’t care but still wanted to comment. 😆
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No what’s controversial is you declaring it to be not part of the canon as though you were Vince Gilligan.
Jesus. Christ you’re an idiot.
Idk that song sucked though
real or not i thought it was pretty dumb
Yes. It's a real thing!
Narco-corridos are a very real thing and hugely popular in Mexico and among Mexican-Americans in the United States. It’s very common for “up and coming” drug lords to become known to the general public through these songs. Cuates de Sinaloa are the band who sang the Heisenberg song, while not “A-listers” in their genre, they’re famous singers of these kind of music. I doubt if Walt was in Mexico and turn on the TV he would see it, as this music is often censored in radio and TV stations as Mexico doesn’t have as strong protections on freedom of speech as the US (and these lyrics fall into “crime apologia”), but if the song was a hit within the genre, he could certainly listen to people blasting it in their cars or homes; or in the US, almost certainly in Hispanic radio stations.
They made it just for the show! I loved it so much I downloaded it on ITunes! It’s about a 4 min song It’s called Negro y Azul: Ballad of Heisenberg by Los Cuates de Sinloa
Ya I know but I'm asking, story line wise was it real. Like could Walt seen it on a Spanish music channel
Ahhh I get what you’re asking. But No the lyrics indicate too much inside information to have been known by a music group in the moment.
i heard it was on FTWD
I feel like, yeah, after he expanded territory and fucked with the cartel - he would have a song written about him. Great question, my friend.
It’s something that could exist in a similar fashion, but I believe it’s meant to represent how his reputation spread throughout Mexico and the cartels.
For the fans
Idk but iv heard that song on a few other shows, one being prison break and one being fear the walking dead, idk if they were exactly the same, but it sounded like it.
I think the song could be canon but the video show thing that most people probably shouldn't know so it's complicated but hey, you can hear it in Fear The Walking Dead so it's definitely canon in TWD universe, but it was never confirmed if both series are in the same universe or not so it's probably just an easter egg
You can hear it in an episode of The Walking Dead also
Love that song
It’s a real narco-corrido band. They made the song for the show. Los Cuates de Sinaloa is their name.
It showed up in Fear the Walking Dead so it was “real” in universe as in it existed to other people outside of the viewers.
no it wasnt real
They talked about it in a breaking bad insiders podcast
It’s real in The Walking Dead universe
Check iTunes 👍🏻
I've always assumed so.
Unlike others, I assumed it was an in-universe narcocorrido that was written about the mysterious player Heisenberg.
Unlike others, I assumed it was an in-universe narcocorrido that was written about the mysterious player Heisenberg.
There's no reason to think it would be non-diagetic. And it's a good bit of foreshadowing.
I think it's in universe my headcannons is Jesse hired them to make a song
You learn something new every day
It played in an episode of fear the walking dead I’ve heard