Just as early corridos heralded the exploits of bandits and revolutionary heroes, so to does the current incantation, the narcocorrido.  The corrido and the narcocorrido are both "rooted in the turbulent 'zone of the imaginary' that is northern Mexico and the border region, both in its real-life conditions and in the way life and values are thought about and portrayed" (Edberg 2004:107). 

When the corrido about Gregorio Cortez first became popular it was associated with the changing power dynamics between the United States and Mexico and bound to images "of what it means to be from the sierra, or from the tough, dry border country - images of people who are survivors, who are wily and resourceful, who know the land, who can take punishment, and who are not deterred by the imposition of a border" (Edberg 2004:107).

As power dynamics between the United States and Mexico continued to transform, so to did the corrido.  Instead of corridos emphasizing the heroic exploits of Gregorio Cortez or Pancho Villa, corridos about "economic struggle, alienation, oppression, drug-smuggling, and increasingly difficult border crossings" (Muniz 2013:58) became the norm.  One of the first bands to embrace this grittier form of corrido was Los Tigres del Norte who were "instrumental in granting the genre [corrido] two very important new avatars: the narcotraficante and the mojado (literally "drug trafficker" and "wetback")" (Muniz 2013:59).

In 1972 Los Tigres del Norte released a song that embraced both the narcotraficante and mojado archetypes called Contrabando y Traicion, a narcocorrido detailing a romantic couples attempt at smuggling marijuana across the border and the subsequent murder of the male smuggler.  This song was an instant hit throughout northern Mexico and paved the way for the modern narcocorrido (Muniz 2013:60).