Tecnocumbia is a style of

Cumbia Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Africans during colonial times. Cumbia is said to have com ...

where there is a fusion between electronic sounds generated by electronic musical instruments through

electronic drum Electronic drums are a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the Drum synthesiser, synthesized or Sampler ...

s, the

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

, synthesisers, and samplers. "Tecnocumbia" was a word developed in Mexico to describe this type of music. However, the style of music was developed throughout South America with different names given to it before the name "Tecnocumbia" was adopted as the single denomination for the music. In Mexico, it developed as a variant of the Mexican cumbia that started in the early 1980s. The style added electronic instruments along with samplers to the Mexican cumbia music. One of the first musical groups with electrical 1980s sounds was Super Show de los Vazkez from

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

, México, formed in 1981, also, other important exponents were Los Temerarios,

Los Bukis Los Bukis (English: the Bukis; ''buki'' meaning "kid" in the Purépecha language) are a Mexican Grupera, grupero band. Formed in Ario de Rosales, Michoacán in 1973, the band's current lineup consists of singer and songwriter Marco Antonio Solís, ...

, Fito Olivares, among others. These groups created several hits with electrical sounds, their fame continues to the end of the 1980s. In the early 1990s,

Selena Selena Quintanilla-Pérez (; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995) was an American singer-songwriter. Known as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Tejano Music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most cel ...

the "Tex-Mex queen," had great musical hits in U.S. and Mexico, her main hits of the tecnocumbia style was ''"Como la flor" (Like a flower), "Carcacha" (the old car)'', and, for first time, this genre was called like ''"Technocumbia"'' by her, with the musical hit of same name, ''"Technocumbia"''. In South America, where the Colombian

most easily expanded in popularity, different "modern" styles of the original Colombian rhythm were started mainly in the countries of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. The Peruvian cumbia, developed in the early 1960s, used

s and synthesisers along with the other classical instruments of the Colombian cumbia in order to create a kind of

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

sound. Variations within the Peruvian cumbia added more tropical rhythms along with a more Andean flavor, which eventually resulted in the creation of the Andean cumbia (Commonly called "Chicha music" in Peru). Using the Andean cumbia as a base, in the middle of the 1990s the Tecnocumbia sprung up in Peru and since then has gone through many changes in Peru and Bolivia. Rossy War was the most important singer of the Peruvian tecnocumbia, she recorded several hits for Peru and Mexico, but her fame was bigger in the U.S.A's Latin community. Finally in the north of Argentina the most recent exponents are the group Kasualidad and Lagrimas. In Ecuador, this style of music began in 1992 with Grupo Coctel and; later, in 1999 with Sharon la Hechicera and Widinson. They are considered the beginners of this music in Ecuador. After them male and female groups appeared like Tierra Canela, Magia Latina, Las Chicas Dulces, Deseo, Kandela y Son, Yerba Buena, Milenium, Batahola and others singers like Jazmín, Jaime Enrique Aymara, Hipatia Balseca, Sanyi, Mayra Alvarado, Milena, Enrique Augusto, Manolo and Silvana. Nowadays the most important singers of tecnocumbia are Maria de los Angeles, Gerardo Morán, Patty Ray, Omayra, Veronica Bolaños, Katty Egas and Delfin Quishpe. In Chile, a similar style is known as

Sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

or Música Tropical. The Mexican and South American tecnocumbias have similar styles and rhythms, due to them both having the Colombia cumbia as a base, but they developed through different methods independently of each other and do not sound exactly alike.

References

{{Cumbia Cumbia music genres 1980s in Latin music 1990s in Latin music