Peru

"Los Mirlos" - a Peruvian Chicha band (source)

Chicha is a type of Peruvian indigenous music that developed organically in the 1960's when the Amerindian population of the Peruvian Amazon was exposed to cumbia and American rock & roll. A great example of cumbia's ability to create hybrid genres, chicha music was performed on cheap electric instruments and electric guitars. A solid cumbia rhythm base was used to play Andean folk melodies in psychedelic style with lots of effects added into the mix.

Later when these people moved to the city, their music was frowned upon and seen as poor mans music by the middle and upper classes. In recent years this has begun to dissipate as cumbia and chicha music break into the mainstream world wide.


A great introduction to chicha for the outside world came when the album "THE ROOTS OF CHICHA: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru" was released to great acclaim. Click here to listen to songs and information about this album and chicha music in general, including links to mainstream media reviews in the New York Times and on NPR.

Chicha and cumbia music is now quite popular in Peru, as you can see by these recent concert photos from flickr.

Chicha conert in Peru (source)

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