Cumbia

Last updated

Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, Europeans and African slaves during colonial times. [1] Cumbia is said to have come from funeral traditions in the Afro-Colombian community.

Contents

Cumbia traditionally uses three drums ( tambora , tambor alegre  [ es ] and lamador), three flutes (gaita hembra and gaito macho, both forms of Colombian flute  [ es ], and flauta de millo ) and has a 2
2 or 2
4 meter. [2] The sound of cumbia can be characterized as having a simple "chu-chucu-chu" rhythm created by the guacharaca. [3] The genre frequently incorporates brass instruments and piano. In order to properly understand the interlocking relationship between cumbia's roots and its Pan-American (and then global) routes, Colombia's geocultural complexities must first be taken into account to comprehend the genre and its subgenres.

Most Hispanic American countries have made their own regional version of Cumbia, some of them with their own particularity.

Examples of cumbia include:

History of Colombian cumbia

Cumbia's background came from the coastal region of Colombia. [7] To be more specific, its dance came from a coastal traditional culture, as cumbia had multiple ethnic influences that originated from this region. One of the biggest factors of its heritage is the African influences that was brought over by the African slaves imported from the colonization of the Spaniards. The influence came from the costeño [8] dance. Another influence was the integration of Spanish people. The Spanish folksongs with influences from the indigenous caused the fusion of races and the elements of their cultures were likewise fused. [9]

The history of cumbia has evolved throughout the years, known as a street dance but had a period of transiting into a ballroom dance. [10] Cumbia is commonly known for having many subgenres from different countries which contributes to the different dance styles known. Cumbia can be referred to as a folk dance while also being known globally as a street dance. To better understand what the dances of cumbia resemble it's better to know the basics of the dance. Cumbia is danced in pairs, consisting the amorous conquest of a woman by a man. This is crucial since the dance from the Atlantic coast [11] has the woman holding a candle in her right hand. This serves as two narrative functions; one to light the way for the dancing woman and the latter for a more serious motif. The latter can be portrayed in an imaginative sentence as a weapon by which the woman defends herself against the advances of her partner. [11]

Since the 1950s, cumbia has been an art form that is stylized, orchestrated and lyricized, contrary to the traditional form. This has diverged through the years and the world-known genre even had a brief period in the 1970s where it lost its popularity.

Expansion into Latin America

As the genre evolved, it expanded throughout Latin America. The expansion has led to the creation of new variations on the form, and international recognition of the genre changed public perceptions. Cumbia almost disappeared in Colombia in the 1970s after the introduction of salsa. Although that was detrimental it could be argued that cumbia found stability in Central America, Mexico, and Peru. [12] The transformation of cumbia in other countries to better align with the taste of populations with very different aesthetic traditions from the strongly African-derived coastal culture [13] from which it originally emerged.

Representing cumbia being perceived as expressing the harmonious outcome of racial and cultural blending, this socially affected the public views on the region's highly discriminated mestizo working class. Socially and economically some changed their views on mestizos due to cumbia being a large factor in shaping their perspective - except in Argentina, where it's still largely seen as vulgar and offensive by much of the middle class and has thus mostly helped reinforce lower class stereotypes. [14]

Regional adaptations of Colombian cumbia

Argentina

Bolivia

Chile

Colombia

Costa Rica

Ecuador

El Salvador

Guatemala

Honduras

Mexico

Nicaragua

Panama

Paraguay

Peru

Uruguay

Venezuela

Related Research Articles

The music of Latin America refers to music originating from Latin America, namely the Romance-speaking regions of the Americas south of the United States. Latin American music also incorporate the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Due to its highly syncretic nature, Latin American music encompasses a wide variety of styles, including influential genres such as cumbia, bachata, bossa nova, merengue, rumba, salsa, samba, son, and tango. During the 20th century, many styles were influenced by the music of the United States giving rise to genres such as Latin pop, rock, jazz, hip hop, and reggaeton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Güiro</span> Latin American percussion instrument

The güiro is a percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines along the notches to produce a ratchet sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Argentina</span> Music and musical tradition of Argentina

The music of Argentina includes a variety of traditional, classical, and popular genres. According to the Harvard Dictionary of Music, Argentina also "has one of the richest art music traditions and perhaps the most active contemporary musical life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Mexico</span> Music and musical traditions of Mexico

The music of Mexico is highly diverse, featuring a wide range of musical genres and performance styles. It has been influenced by a variety of cultures, primarily deriving from Europeans, Indigenous, and Africans. Music became an expression of Mexican nationalism starting in the nineteenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Colombia</span> Music and musical traditions of Colombia

The music of Colombia is an expression of Colombian culture, music genres, both traditional and modern, according with the features of each geographic region, although it is not uncommon to find different musical styles in the same region. The diversity in musical expressions found in Colombia can be seen as the result of a mixture of Amerindian, African, and European influences, as well as more modern American.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andean music</span> Style of music

Andean music is a group of styles of music from the Andes region in South America.

Chilean music refers to all kinds of music developed in Chile, or by Chileans in other countries, from the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors to the modern day. It also includes the native pre-Columbian music from what is today Chilean territory.

Panama is a Central American country, inhabited mostly by mestizos. The music of Panama is heavily based on the folk music of Spain, particularly that of Andalusia and was influenced first by the indigenous populations of Kunas, Teribes, Ngobe Bugle and others, and then by the black population who were brought over, first as slaves from Africa, between the 16th century and the 19th century, and then voluntarily to work on the Panamanian Railroad and Canal projects between the 1840s and 1914.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of El Salvador</span> Music and musical traditions of El Salvador

The music of El Salvador refers to the Music of the Republic of El Salvador and is encompassed in the wider Latin American musical traditions.

Latin rock is a term to describe a subgenre blending traditional sounds and elements of Latin American and Hispanic Caribbean folk with rock music. However, it is widely used in the English-language media to refer any kind of rock music featuring Spanish or Portuguese vocals. This has led to controversy about the scope of the terminology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vallenato</span> Colombian folk music genre

Vallenato, is a popular folk music genre from Colombia. It primarily comes from its Caribbean region. Vallenato literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía de Perijá in north-east Colombia. The name also applies to the people from the city where this genre originated: Valledupar. In 2006, vallenato and cumbia were added as a category in the Latin Grammy Awards. Colombia's traditional vallenato music is Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, according to UNESCO.

Cumbia villera is a subgenre of cumbia music originating in Argentina in the late 1990s and popularized all over Latin America and Latin communities abroad.

Argentine cumbia is an umbrella term that comprises several distinct trends within the same tradition: the dance and music style known as cumbia in Argentina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexican cumbia</span> Colombian musical subgenre

Mexican cumbia is a type of cumbia, a music which originated in Colombia but was later reinvented and adapted in Mexico.

The Culture of Latin America is the formal or informal expression of the people of Latin America and includes both high culture and popular culture, as well as religion and other customary practices. These are generally of Western origin, but have various degrees of Native American, African and Asian influence.

Peruvian cumbia is a subgenre of chicha that became popular in the coastal cities of Peru, mainly in Lima in the 1960s through the fusion of local versions of the original Colombian genre, traditional highland huayno, and rock music, particularly surf rock and psychedelic rock. The term chicha is more frequently used for the pre-1990s variations of the subgenre.

The New Chilean Cumbia also known as New Chilean Cumbia Rock is a subgenre of cumbia music that originated in Chile in the early 2000s and that largely surfaced in mainstream media in 2009 and 2010. In contrast to older cumbias the lyrics of New Chilean Cumbia deals more with urban life and combines aspects of rock, hip hop and a wide variety of Latin American genres like Andean music, salsa, the son, reggae, boleros, ska, Latin-African music, diablada and even folklore from the Balkans, like the Klezmer, and Gipsy music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumbia (Colombia)</span> Regional music and dance style

Cumbia is a folkloric genre and dance from Colombia.

References

  1. ↑ "Everything you need to know about Cumbia". colombia.co. 27 July 2015. Archived from the original on 23 September 2022. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  2. ↑ Yurco, Cherie (2014-02-25). "Cumbia: The Sound of Colombia". Making Music Magazine. Archived from the original on 2022-11-09. Retrieved 2023-02-25.
  3. ↑ "Cumbia: the Danceable Musical Tradition that Defies Borders". Marfa Public Radio. 2017-08-31. Archived from the original on 2023-02-25. Retrieved 2023-02-25.
  4. ↑ "The Cumbia – Drumset Adaptations of a Traditional Colombian/Panamanian Rhythm". moderndrummer.com. Archived from the original on 2021-05-11. Retrieved 2021-06-17.
  5. ↑ "Colombia: Land of a Thousand Rhythms". colombia.co. 16 March 2015. Archived from the original on 23 September 2022. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  6. ↑ Parra Valencia, Diego (2019). El libro de la cumbia: Resonancias, transferencias y transplantes de las cumbias latinoamericanas. Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano / Discos Fuentes Edimusica S.A.
  7. ↑ Cumbia!: Scenes of a Migrant Latin American Music Genre. Duke University Press. 2013. ISBN   978-0-8223-5414-7.
  8. ↑ Wade, Peter (2008). "African Diaspora and Colombian Popular Music in the Twentieth Century". Black Music Research Journal. 28 (2): 41–56. ISSN   0276-3605.
  9. ↑ Santos, Mary (September 1944). "Music in Colombia". Music Educators Journal. 31 (1): 24–25. doi:10.2307/3386695. ISSN   0027-4321.
  10. ↑ Carmona, Antonio Brugés. “Música Costeña/Realism Mágico,” (2014): 5-12.
  11. 1 2 Olivella, Delia Zapata (1967). "An Introduction to the Folk Dances of Colombia". Ethnomusicology. 11 (1): 91–96. doi:10.2307/850500. ISSN   0014-1836.
  12. ↑ "Joe, Diomedez... Pacini | PDF | Latin American Music | Performing Arts". Scribd. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  13. ↑ Hernandez, Deborah Pacini. “Cumbia: A Selection of ColombianCumbia Recordings: Peregoyo y Su Combo Vacana: Tropicalisimo,” 36: 2 (1992): 288 – 296.
  14. ↑ "Exclusión social y Cumbia villera". Lo que somos. 24 May 2022.
  15. ↑ "Cumbia: The Musical Backbone Of Latin America". npr.org. Archived from the original on 2022-12-09. Retrieved 2023-02-22.
DAB list gray.svg
This article includes a list of related items that share the same name (or similar names).
If an internal link incorrectly led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.