Cumbia Che Views

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Cumbia is a Latin American music style that originated in Colombia's Caribbean coastal region. Traditional cumbia and its associated dance is considered to be representative of Colombia, along with Vallenato, Bambuco and Pasillo. Cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of eastern Colombia, but there are also folkloric variants in Panama. During the mid-20th century, Colombian band leaders such as Pacho Galan and Lucho Bermudez orchestrated this Caribbean folklore and brought it to different parts of Latin America, where it gained particular popularity in Mexico, Argentina, and the Andean region. Cumbia began as a courtship dance practiced among the African slave population that was later mixed with European instruments and musical characteristics. Cumbia is very popular in the Andean region and the Southern Cone and was until the early 1980's more popular in these regions than the salsa.[1]

Since the 1980s, in the city of Medellín, there has been growing interest among young and middle-aged people in rescuing the masterpieces of the '50s. This is the only city in Colombia where ballroom numbers of Cumbia, Porro and Gaita (orchestrated variant of Porro Pelayero or Palitiao ) are still widely enjoyed and danced to by all ages of all social classes.

In the 1940s Colombian singer Luis Carlos Meyer Castandet, emigrated to Mexico where he worked with the Mexican orchestra director Rafael de Paz. He recorded what many people think was the first cumbia recorded outside of Colombia, La Cumbia Cienaguera. He recorded other hits like Mi gallo tuerto, Caprichito, and Nochebuena . This is when Cumbia began to be popularized in Mexico. From 1952 to 1954 Lucho Bermudez lived in Mexico City where he met and recorded with Perez Prado and Benny More.

It is one of the most popular dance forms in the country. It is widely danced at parties and gatherings. Chile has a long development history of its own style: the Chilean Cumbia. Sonora Palacios is one of the most successful orchestras of this genre, along with Viking 5, Giolito y su Combo and later La Sonora de Tommy Rey. However, Cumbia's popularity has been declining since the success of reggaetón in early 2000s, losing part of the preferences of the popular sectors of society.