Peruvian cumbia

Chicha or Peruvian cumbia
Stylistic origins	Cumbia, surf rock, Andean music, psychedelic rock, vals criollo
Cultural origins	Late 1960s-1970s, Peru
Typical instruments	Electric guitar, electric organ, percussion, güiro, maraca, keyboards, electric bass, timbales, synthesizer

Chicha or Peruvian cumbia is a subgenre of Cumbia 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.

Unlike other styles of cumbia, the Chicha subgenre's harmonics are based on the pentatonic scale typical of Andean music. It is played with keyboards or synthesizers and up to three electric guitars that can play simultaneous melodies, an element derived from the harp and guitar lines of Andean huayno. The rhythmic electric guitar in chicha is played with upstrokes, following patterns derived from Peruvian coastal creole waltz. Chicha songs contain electric guitar solos, following the rock music tradition.

Chicha started out in the 1960s in the oil-boom cities of the Peruvian Amazon. Loosely inspired by Colombian cumbia, it incorporated the distinctive pentatonic scales of Andean melodies, Cuban percussion, and the psychedelic sounds of surf guitars, wah-wah pedals and moog synthesizers. Chicha absorbed elements of the music of the Amazonian regions of Peru and the use of the Farfisa electric organ through Amazonian bands like Juaneco y su Combo. Chicha, which is named after a corn-based liquor favored by the Incas, quickly spread to Lima. It became the music of choice of the mostly indigenous new migrant population. By the mid-1980s it had become the most widespread urban music in Peru.

The first Chicha hit, and the song from which the movement has taken its name, was "La Chichera" (The Chicha Seller) by Los Demonios del Mantaro (The Devils of Mantaro), who hailed from the central highlands of Junin. Band Los Destellos, formed in Lima en 1966, brought electric guitars to Chicha and consolidated its characteristic features by integrating in it elements of Peruvian Andean folklore, Peruvian creole waltz, Cuban music and rock music.

During the 1980s the Amerindian immigrants to coastal cities that nurtured the subgenre became working and middle class individuals and a market for Chicha commercial radio. The Pharaoh of Cumbia, Chacalon, became one of the most popular Chicha artists through his hit "Soy provinciano" (I am from the province) and vibrant concerts. Another famous band in the 1980s were Los Shapis, a provincial group established by their 1981 hit "El Aguajal" (The Swamp), a version of a traditional huayno.

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Wikipedia