Argentine cumbia

The tradition & historical record

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. Originally from Colombia, cumbia has been well-known and appreciated in Argentina for a long time, but it gained nationwide scope and attention when it became popular among the lower-class people in main urban centers, the large cities of the Río de la Plata basin, in the 1990s. Among the most important cumbia bands and singers that popularized the genre are Ráfaga, La Nueva Luna, Amar Azul, Gilda, Ezequiel Cwirkaluk and other traditional cumbia bands like Los Palmeras, Cali and Los Leales. Chocolate had similar success across the water in Uruguay. Most bands are composed of synthesizer keyboards as main instruments, electronic sounds and percussion, and a musical score very charged with vocal harmonies, bells, and trumpets (usually electronically synthesized).

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Argentine cumbia”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.

Argentine cumbia is umbrella term; dance and music style known as cumbia in Argentina, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ¹

The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ¹