palabras JESÚS TRIVIÑO ALARCÓN courtesy of SiTV.com

Yolanda Perez likes to mix things up. Since her debut in 2003, the 25-year-old has taken traditional regional Mexican tunes and combined it with R&B and even reggaeton (when it was relevant). Yet, with her fifth album, Todo de mi, the Mexican beauty sticks to the original script to present an album full of good ol' banda music. "I kept [this album] banda traditional. I didn't do any mixes or anything," she tells SiTV.com. "I had been getting a lot of fans telling me, ‘We want something that sounds like when you started.'" For those of you not hip to the banda game, take heed to Perez's top five things you should know about the Mexican genre.

Tamborazo Isn't Banda
"It's not tamborazo. Tamborazo is a form of banda and it comes from Zacatecas, Mexico. A lot of people get it confused because it sounds like banda but the difference is that there is less instruments and there is no singer. It's just music."

Vital Instruments
"Banda consists of 12 to 15 people who play instruments. It's really important to have the tuba, la tambora and the charchetas. If you throw in a keyboard than it's not traditional banda."

Different Styles
"The styles of banda are rancheras and corridos. These are the type of songs we typically play. We also do baladas because it's more modern and you can play around with it. Of course cumbias are a definite."

Baile Conmigo
"You can't dance duranguense to banda. It doesn't really go (laughs)."

Louder Than a Bomb
"It's really, really loud. If you're going to see banda live and they don't have a big sound system you could still hear it. I think that's what makes everyone so excited. Lo que alegra el corazón a la gente; when they hear banda people go crazy."