Nortec (from the combination of "norteño" and "techno") is a genre of electronic dance music developed in Tijuana (a border city in Baja California, Mexico) that first gained popularity in 2001.
[1][2][3] Nortec music is characterized by hard dance beats and samples from traditional forms of Mexican music such as Banda sinaloense and Norteño - unmistakably Mexican horns are often used.
These styles are characterized by their use of accordions and double bass (norteño); tubas, clarinets, horns and pumping bass drums (tambora) and quirky use of percussion and polyrhythmic snare drum rolls (both).
Nortec originated in 1999 when Pepe Mogt started by experimenting with samples of old banda sinaloense and norteño albums and altering them on his computer or filtering them with analog synthesizers.
He had picked up on the idea by listening to the percussive and angular grooves of the tambora and norteña music played at a family social event.