Tecnocumbia
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The synthesizer-and-drum-machine cumbia that swept the Andean and Amazonian countries in the 1990s: bright electronic keyboards, timbales/programmed percussion, electric guitar and a punchy cumbia bounce at 100–115 BPM, topped by emotive, often raspy female-led vocals. It fuses Peruvian and Ecuadorian cumbia and Andean melody with pop and techno textures, and leans romantic and danceable, frequently spotlighting a charismatic star singer. The sound is glossy, hooky and mass-market — cumbia for the karaoke and TV-variety age.
History
Tecnocumbia crystallized in Peru in the mid-1990s, with Rossy War 'la reina de la tecnocumbia' scoring a continental smash in 'Nunca Pensé Llorar' and popularizing the electronic, star-fronted style; the term itself was also used by Tejano superstar Selena, whose 1994 track 'Techno Cumbia' spread the label in the U.S. and Mexico. The style boomed in Ecuador through singers such as Widinson and Gerardo Morán and became a dominant popular form there, and it spread through Bolivia and Mexico. Tecnocumbia's electronic, keyboard-heavy template fed directly into later Andean cumbia-pop and the ongoing modernization of cumbia across the region.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- La República / El Comercio (Peru), profiles of Rossy War and tecnocumbia
- Ecuador.com and JSTOR ('Whose National Music?', on Ecuadorian tecnocumbia)
- Ramiro Burr, writings on Selena and regional Mexican music