Cumbia

Cumbia
Stylistic origins	West African, Amerindian and European music, steps and singing patterns.
Cultural origins	Caribbean coast of Colombia and Panama.
Subgenres
Cumbia villera, Peruvian cumbia, Tecnocumbia
Regional scenes
Colombia - Ecuador - Nicaragua - Panama - Peru - United States

Cumbia [ˈkumbja] is a dance-oriented music genre popular throughout Latin America. It began as a courtship dance practiced among the African population on the Caribbean coast of Colombia and Panama. It later mixed with Amerindian and European instruments, steps and musical characteristics and spread throughout Latin America and abroad. While other genres of Latin American music have remained associated with specific countries or regions, cumbia has grown to be one of the most widespread and unifying musical genres to emerge from Latin America.

Cumbia across Latin America

The diverse types of cumbia throughout Latin America

Colombia

Main article: Cumbia (Colombia)

By the 1940s Cumbia began spreading from the coast to other parts of Colombia alongside other costeña form of music like porro and vallenato. Clarinetist Lucho Bermúdez helped bring cumbia into the country's interior. By the 1950s cumbia was migrating across Colombia's northern and southern borders, first to Ecuador and Peru, then Mexico and Argentina, and eventually into the rest of Spanish-speaking Meso- and South America. The early spread of cumbia internationally was helped by the number of record companies located on the coast. Originally a working class populist music, cumbia was frowned upon by the elites, but as the music pervaded class association with the music subsided in Colombia and cumbia became a shared music in every sector of society.

Today, the best representation of traditional Cumbia is shown every year on the Festival de la Cumbia in El Banco, Magdalena.

Ecuador

As Colombia's southern neighbor, Ecuador was among the first countries to adopt cumbia as a native genre. Ecuadorian cumbia initially drew heavily upon the Meztizo music of the Andes and gradually absorbed more Afro-Cuban instrumentation and rhythm throughout the 1960s and 70s.

Nicaragua

Nicaragua became a stronghold of Cumbia music during the 1950s and 1960s. The country has its own variation of cumbia music and dance. Mostly known for its cumbia chinandegana in the Northwestern section of the country, it has also seen a rise in cumbia music artists on the Caribbean coast like Gustavo Layton.

Panama

Separated only by its border with Colombia, Panama's costal tri-cultural people developed cumbia alongside their counterparts to the south.

Peru

As in Ecuador, Peruvian cumbia initially drew heavily upon Andean music and gradually absorbed more Afro-Cuban instrumentation and rhythm as it developed. In the 1960s Peru underwent an oil boom that drew many workers to the Amazon region, including many North Americans who brought music that was held popular in the United States, such as surf music and then psychedelic rock. This infused cumbia with electric guitars, Hammond organ, and other new sounds giving Peruvian cumbia its own distinct identity and name: chicha, also called "cumbia chicha" or "psychedelic cumbia."

Cumbia in the United States

Cumbia first came to the U.S. from Mexico in the mid-20th century. Another cumbian wave arrived among the Colombian immigrants fleeing the turmoils of the 1980s. Since then, cumbian music scenes have thrived up in U.S. cities within the significant Latin American populations of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Corpus Christi. Cumbia music has also caught on big with musicians beyond the Latina Diaspora, resulting in fusions of Cumbia with other genres such as Afrobeat, punk rock, and brass band music.

See also

• Baila
• Cumbia villera
• Latin Grammy Award for Best Cumbia/Vallenato Album
• Tamborito
• Tecnocumbia
• Totó la Momposina
• Tropical music

External links

• A Musical Journey Through Cumbia
• In a Nutshell: Cumbia Guide to cumbia (English)