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AMS/Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Lecture

About

In 1972, a half-century after the birth of commercial country music, Billboard country charts posted the first hit single by a Latin artist, a young Tejano named Johnny Rodriguez. Over the next twenty-one months three Mexican American artists, Rodriguez, Freddy Fender, and Linda Ronstadt, racked up seventeen Top 10 hits, including ten at No. 1. These artists returned to the country charts throughout the ’70s and ’80s, with solo records and sometimes collaborations. But the half-century since 1975 has seen only one Latin solo artist top the country charts: Rick Trevino in 1996. Perhaps relatedly, recent research has identified an industry effort to build up country’s white image in the ’70s, even as the genre enjoyed a rise in Black and Hispanic listenership. This lecture revisits the music and machinations of country’s 1970s Latino prime and considers this moment in the context of the hundred-year history of Mexican American involvements and contributions in country music.

This lecture will be held at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 2 October 2025 at 7:00pm ET.

Our Partners

This event will be held as part of the AMS/Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Lecture Series.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Participants

Nadine Hubbs
Presenter

Nadine Hubbs is a historian, theorist, and critic whose work takes a musical perspective on modern U.S. society and culture. She has written on Leonard Bernstein and the Copland–Thomson gay composers’ circle, 1970s disco, Morrissey, Radiohead, Springsteen, and country music. The author of many essays and articles, she has also written two award-winning books, The Queer Composition of America’s Sound and Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music; and co-edited the award-winning collection Uncharted Country: New Voices and Perspectives in Country Music Studies. Her public-facing work appears in outlets including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, USA Today, NPR, MSNBC, BBC, and the Dolly Parton’s America podcast. Hubbs serves as Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Music, and American Culture at the University of Michigan. She is currently writing a book titled Border Country: The Mexican Influence at the Heart of Country Music.