From its humble origins on the Caribbean coast of Colombia to the Hollywood Bowl, cumbia has enriched the lives of millions of people across the Americas. Its infectious and simple rhythm has put people to dance for more than eight decades. Why has this music style been so popular in almost every Latin American country? The simple answer is, each country has created its own styles of cumbias.

The most widely accepted theory regarding the origin of cumbia links the three ethnic groups that have historically made up Colombia since colonial times (Indigenous, African, and Spanish) and places the so-called Momposina region, towards the delta of the Magdalena River, in the Colombian Caribbean, as the cradle of the musical phenomenon.

In the beginning, back in the 1930s, the music was played with a few traditional drums, a large-sized single maraca, and two “gaitas,” which are wooden, yard-long flutes. This traditional style continues to be played and recorded by Colombia’s leading ensemble Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, among others. In the 1940s, Colombian clarinetist and arranger Lucho Bermúdez, who listened and admired the American bandleader and clarinetist Benny Goodman, decided to form a group in the big band style to make cumbia, and other related styles, swing like an American big band. Bandleader Pacho Galán and others followed the example of Bermúdez and by the early 1950s Colombians in the big cities were dancing to the cumbia rhythm. Nat King Cole recorded one of Galán’s hits, “Ay Cosita Linda,” in his second of three Spanish-language albums, titled A mis amigos (1959).

In the 1950s, Andrés Landero, a self-taught accordionist who had played with Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto a decade before, adapted the harmony and melody of the “gaitas” to the accordion and began to record a new style of cumbia that spread like wildfire across the Americas. Today, Landero’s legacy is celebrated and promoted by his grandson Yeison Landero, who is revitalizing the accordion style created by his grandfather decades ago.

Cumbia spread to Argentina as early as the 1940s in the hands of composer-arranger Efraín Orozco Morales, a Colombian musician who planted the seed with such popular tunes as “Muévete negra,” “Cuando suena la cumbia,” and the classic “El caimán,” whose fame invaded Latin America. Other Colombian musicians living in Buenos Aires such as Hernán Rojas, creator of Los Wawancó, and Helí Toro, founder of Cuarteto Imperial, helped to consolidate the music style. A few decades later, the “cumbia villera” was born in the working-class barrios of Buenos Aires and popularized by Pablo Lescano. Argentina also gave us the Cumbia powerhouses Los Palmeras from the province of Santa Fe and more recently La Delio Valdez from Buenos Aires.

In the late 1950s and early 60s, the city of Medellín, Colombia, became the springboard for dozens of bands that began to record a different type of cumbia sound called “chucu-chucu.” Influenced by American and British rock ’n’ roll culture, groups such as Los Golden Boys, Los Hispanos, Los Teenagers, and Los Black Stars created a new sound and new look of Colombian hipness. Their influence spread to Mexico where countless groups began to emerge with their own sound and look. Among them were Rigo Tovar y su Costa Azul, Xavier Passos, Chico Ché y la Crisis, El Super Show de Los Vázquez, and many more. 

The popularity of the big band line up created by Bermúdez in the 1940s was the starting point for the emergence of other instrumental ensembles focused on playing cumbia such as Los Corraleros de Majagual and La Sonora Dinamita. The cumbia hits played by these very popular bands were heard on the radio across Mexico. But there was also a wave of Colombian accordionists such as Aniceto Molina, who moved to Mexico and helped to spread the cumbia bug north to south, east to west. In the 60s, Mexican DJs traveled to Colombia bringing back loads of vinyl records that would help to usher-in the sonidero (street DJ) culture, both in Mexico City and Monterrey. The sonideros from Monterrey gave us another style called “cumbia rebajada,” a cumbia that was slowed down in RPMs during playback on the turntable.

Peru also contributed to the spread of Cumbia culture starting in the 1960s. Influenced by American surf music and psychedelia, a new style of cumbia began to take hold on the Peruvian coast and the Amazon. It was called chicha on the coast and cumbia amazónica in the jungle. Characterized by groups playing instruments associated with rock ’n’ roll, it featured electric guitars and bass, keyboards, and drum kits. Among the popular groups were Los Mirlos, Los Destellos, Juaneco y su Combo, Los Wemblers de Iquitos in the Amazon and Los Chapis, Los Hijos del Sol, and Chacalón y La Nueva Crema on the coast.

In the U.S., cumbia-inspired songs have been part of the repertoire of Mexican-American acts including the late Selena, Los Tigres del Norte, Los Lobos, Ozomatli, and La Santa Cecilia. 

For decades, cumbia has been one of the most popular dance forms in the Americas. It’s easy to understand why: 

Today, bands such as Son Rompe Pera, are ushering in a wave of young audiences with a fresh attitude: Cumbia is the new punk. Just like punk decades ago, cumbia offers new generations of young Latin Americans their own music they can reinvent in their own way and create a positive identity.

Betto Arcos is a music journalist, a contributor to NPR, BBC Radio 3, and the author of Music Stories from the Cosmic Barrio

Catch two nights of Noche de Cumbia coming up: 
On September 21, 2024, discover the rising voices of cumbia at The Ford.
On September 22, 2024, dance along with the global stars of cumbia at the Hollywood Bowl.