Cumbia Music Guide: Origins of Cumbia and Popular Artists

Cumbia is a style of Latin music that originated in Colombia and became popular throughout South America, Central America, and the United States. Traditional cumbia music uses a blend of African, Amerindian, and European styles and uses musical instruments such as drums, flutes, maracas, and accordions.

Cumbia, as a music genre, has many different styles based on where it’s played, and countries across Latin America — like Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, Cuba, and Mexico — all have their own unique styles and additions to the music. Cumbia music is most discernible for being percussion-heavy, with a signature double beat played on a maraca or drum, and flutes that carry the melody.

The cumbia musical genre traces back to the 1800s, with roots in Colombia’s African culture:

• Beginnings in African dance: Cumbia most likely began in the nineteenth century as a type of courtship dance style created by enslaved Africans on the coasts of Caribbean countries and Colombia.
• Development in Colombia: Instruments of the Indigenous people of Colombia, such as various drums and flutes, were added to the sound as cumbia developed in the 1900s. Later, European influences would introduce the accordion.
• Cumbia in Mexico: By the 1940s, cumbia had arrived in Mexico. The artist Luis Carlos Meyer Castandet popularized cumbia in Mexico, along with the big band orchestras of the artists Rafael de Paz and Tony Camargo. Cumbia in Mexico blended with mariachi music styles and was also influenced by African and Caribbean styles, such as son, vallenato, and merengue.
• Cumbia in Peru: In the 1960s, a new style of cumbia music emerged that featured synthetic sounds and surf-style guitars. This new Peruvian cumbia was often referred to as chicha and was led by groups such as Los Destellos and Los Wemblers de Iquitos.
• Modern cumbia: Cumbia spread across Latin American countries, including Argentina, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Today, the rhythms and instruments of cumbia have been combined with electronic, country, and hip-hop styles.

Cumbia has evolved in many ways from its beginnings on the coast of Colombia to today:

• Instruments: Early cumbia music used many types of drums—including the tambor alegre and llamador (single-headed drums), and tambora (double-headed drum)—as well as a flute called a gaita, maracas, and a gauche, which is a tube filled with seeds. Modern cumbia music features instruments like accordions, new types of drums, guitars, and horn instruments.
• Rhythms: Traditional cumbia used a rhythmic pattern called the clave, which is common in Afro-Cuban music—such as reggaeton and reggae—and is a triple-pulse or duple-pulse. Modern cumbia will often use the Latin alegre style with offbeat rhythms and improvisation.
• Vocals: Traditional Colombian cumbia was almost always instrumental and had no lyrics, only traditional cumbia dances. Modern cumbia added lyrics and vocals in African languages, Spanish, and other languages.

There are many different variations of cumbia that use different instruments and sounds:

• Chicha: Often called Peruvian cumbia, chicha music combines the percussions and rhythms of cumbia with the high-pitched and surf-style guitars of psychedelic rock.
• Cumbia rebajada: Cumbia rebajada is cumbia played at a much slower tempo. This subgenre includes original songs slowed down, as well as songs made specifically at this slower speed.
• Cumbia sonidera: A type of cumbia that emphasizes the guacharaca, a tube-like instrument with ridges that are scraped to make a percussive sound, as well as the organ and electronic sounds. In Mexico, sonideros are DJs and this style of music often features “shout out” lyrics that highlight a sonidero crew.
• Cumbia norteña: A Mexican variation of cumbia related to ranchera music that is accordion-forward in style and has a slower tempo than typical cumbia music.

There are many artists who popularized cumbia and transformed it into what we know today:

1. 1. La Sonora Dinamita: A Colombian band that formed in the 1960s and became one of the first popular cumbia music groups. The band has a history of featuring women lead vocalists, including Vilma Díaz, known as La Diva de La Cumbia, and Mélida Yará.
2. 2. Luis Carlos Meyer Castandet: Luis is considered the one who brought cumbia to Mexico and made the genre popular with songs like “La Historia” and “La Cumbia Cienaguera.”
3. 3. Los Ángeles Azules: A Mexican cumbia group that plays cumbia sonidera, a form of cumbia that incorporates synthesizers and electronic music styles.
4. 4. Aniceto Molina Aguirre: A Colombian musician of cumbia whose songs, such as "La Cumbia Sampuesana," became popular in El Salvador.
5. 5. Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto: A traditional folkloric music group that began playing cumbia-style music in the 1940s. They are considered as one of the few bands who have preserved the original traditions of the cumbia style.

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