Thanks to Mitú’s video on him, I fell more in love with the sound of Cuco’s (whose real name is Omar Banos) music and what he wants to do with his music.
Before watching the video, I only heard his song Lo Que Siento, but after seeing it, I began to listen to his two other EPs on iTunes. They’re titled "Songs4u" and "Wannabewithu", which both consist of music that can remind you of old romantic songs like from Ritchie Valens in the 1950s. I don’t know much about the way music is produced, but these are really great EPs. In Mitú’s video, Cuco described his music as “alternative dream pop” that has “a lot of synthesizers” and “a lot of 808’s”. Personally, I don’t know what that means, but I love it as Cuco can make great music.
One of my favorite things about Cuco’s music business is that he uses it to fight against the machismo in the Latin American community. Growing up Mexican with a house mostly of boys myself, I saw how differently boys were treated compared to girls. I couldn’t really do some things like play video games with my brothers since I was told it wasn’t what "una mujer hace". However, machismo also strongly affects our boys in the Latin American community. They are told not to cry, and they’re told to always be strong. In reality, that’s not possible, and Cuco shows it through his music. Stating he hates machismo, he also states how he “expresses his feelings” and he’s “being real”.
His song Lover Is A Day can be interpreted to describe an experience with someone he loves, and how that relationship is broken. Saying something like “sick in the head for you and no cure has been discovered” shows how deep his feelings are, which instantly challenges the machismo regime. Realizing and expressing one’s feelings itself shows a lot in how a man specifically is able to deal with the standards and expectations placed upon them. If you want to see how Cuco challenges more machismo, make sure to listen to his other EPs!
Aside from being totally dreamy, Cuco’s music drives a social change in the reality of what Latin American society is. And I’m all here for him and his music.
