A highly rhythmic style of music whose origins lie in a West African, 19th-century slave dance,
Colombian cumbia
is considered to be the mother of most dance music from northern South America. It embraces the area's Native American, African, and Hispanic influences. Today, cumbia is often lumped under the general heading of
tropical music
,
which also includes soca, merengue, and other styles not native to Colombia. A more simple form is as popular in Mexico as it is in its...
