The musical characteristics of the Narcocorrido are very similar to the regular corrido. The Narcocorrido is a song style with a declamatory melody in either a 2/4 or 3/4 meter (Simonett, 2001). The words are set to match the music by the composers. The composers use the rhythms of the language or the pitch of the music to express the text. The song is usually made up of several stanzas of four or six octosyllabic lines. This means that each line has eight syllables. The singer repeats the melody phrases for each stanza. Narcocorridos sometimes have a refrain or lines that are repeated, but they have a different rhythm. The Narcocorrido usually is about three minutes longs. The singers are accompanied by bandas which are bands that play the music while the singer sings. The bandas typically play instruments like the diatonic accordion, bajo sexto guitar, electric bass, and drums (Simonett, 2001). The Narcocorrido ends with a "despedida" or "farewell." In the "despedida," the singer announces the end of the Narcocorrido and the end of the story being sung. (Simonett, 2001).