Cumbia villera

Cumbia villera ( or ) (roughly translated as "slum cumbia", "ghetto cumbia", or " shantytown cumbia") is a subgenre of cumbia music originating in Argentina in the late 1990s and popularized all over Latin America and Latin communities abroad.

Lyrically, cumbia villera uses the vocabulary of the marginal and lower classes, like the Argentine ''lunfardo'' and ''lenguaje tumbero'' ("gangster language" or "thug language"), and deals with themes such as the everyday life in the '' villas miseria'' (slums), poverty and misery, the use of hard drugs, promiscuity and/or prostitution, nights out at ''boliches'' (discos and clubs) that play cumbia and other tropical music genres (such as the emblematic ''Tropitango'' venue in Pacheco), the football culture of the barra bravas, delinquency and clashes with the police and other forms of authority, antipathy towards politicians, and authenticity in being true ''villeros'' (inhabitants of the ''villas'').

Musically, cumbia villera bases its sound in a heavy use of synthesizers, sound effects, keyboard voices, keytars, electronic drums, and other elements from electric instruments. Cumbia villera's characteristic sound was created using influences from Colombian and Peruvian cumbia, ''cumbia sonidera'' and ''cumbia santafesina'' in the realm of cumbia, and from reggae, ska, Argentine folklore, and electronic music in other music genres. Lastly, the creator of cumbia villera, Pablo Lescano, admitted that his lyrics were influenced by bands from Argentine punk rock, like 2 Minutos and Argentine rock rolinga, like Viejas Locas."Nunca vi una vecina tan amarga como vos", La Opinión Semanario
/ref> Over time, the genre has evolved, bands and artists have explored different sounds, and new fusions have arisen, such as cumbia rapera, with Bajo Palabra mixing cumbia villera with hip hop, and tropipunk, with Kumbia Queers mixing cumbia villera with punk.

For its characteristics, cumbia villera has been compared to gangsta rap, reggaeton, rock rolinga, raggamuffin, baile funk, and narcocorrido, among other music genres.

History

Cumbia villera was born in the late 1990s, amid an economic and social decline in Argentina.“La cumbia villera es una gran ventana para ver cómo se procesa la desigualdad”, Clarín
/ref> The introduction of neoliberal economics in Argentina in the early '90s gave a quick boost to the nation's economy but progressively marginalized large areas of society, and by the late '90s, Argentina was in a total and implacable depression. Some of the most affected by this crisis were workers and the lower classes, and among them were the inhabitant and dwellers of the '' villas miseria'' (slums or shantytowns) in Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area, which favoured cumbia and other tropical music genres. However, through the '90s, Argentine cumbia bands such as Grupo Sombras or Grupo Green didn't touch social issues, and in fact, their lyrics were limited to themes such as love or partying.

It was in this situation that in 1999, the first cumbia villera band was born in the depths of Villa La Esperanza, a slum in San Fernando, Buenos Aires (in the north of the Buenos Aires metropolitan area). Pablo Lescano, then keytarist from one of these cumbia bands, Amar Azul, started to pen new songs with more aggressive lyrics. His band rejected them, so he began saving money from the royalties he earned from Amar Azul songs in order to buy instruments and equipment for producing an independent record. He created a new group with a different aesthetic, different lyrics, and a different sound, Flor de Piedra. In his new project, Lescano limited himself to songwriting and managing. Flor de Piedra released the first cumbia villera album, ''La Vanda Más Loca'', by sending the master to a ''pirate'' broadcaster due to lack of interest from major record companies. When the song used as the promotional single and first cumbia villera song, "Vos Sos Un Botón", started to dominate the airwaves, the Leader Music label grew interested in the band.

The group's records began to receive heavy airplay, and soon the poor, the marginalized, and the unemployed identified with the new musical genre, and cumbia villera spread to other large urban settlements, eventually rising to popularity across Argentina. By 2000, dozens of cumbia villera bands were playing and recording, one of which was another Lescano project, Damas Gratis, which he formed after a motorbike accident that cost him his place in Amar Azul.

Other bands also went beyond the original foundations of Flor de Piedra and started to explore new sounds and themes, borrowing elements from rock ( Los Gedes) or classical ( Mala Fama), and writing lyrics that were either more socially conscious ( Guachín) or radically aggressive ( Pibes Chorros). The crisis that exploded in 2001 in Argentina strongly boosted cumbia villera's popularity and solidified it as an Argentinian icon.

It was at this point that some of the best albums in the history of cumbia villera were released, including ''100% Villero'' by Yerba Brava (2001) and ''Sólo Le Pido A Dios'' by Pibes Chorros (2002). The genre and its repercussions were widely discussed in the mainstream media, with debates in major newspapers, magazines, TV shows, and radio shows, and the phenomenon even reached television, with '' Tumberos'' (2002), and film, with '' El bonaerense'' (2002) and '' El polaquito'' (2003).

Cumbia villera bands began touring neighbouring countries, North America, and Europe, spreading the genre beyond its original boundaries. This "Argentine invasion" influenced artists in other countries, including Uruguay ( La Clave), Paraguay ( Los Rebeldes), Bolivia (Diego Soria

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