Glossary of Colombian music

A

• agüelulo - A teenage gathering, originally held in private homes and then larger spaces; a teenager who frequented such a place was a agüelero or sometimes a cocacolos, after the main beverage drunk at agüelulos, Coca-Cola
• música andina - An early national style of the 19th and early 20th centuries, developed from the Andean interior
• música antillana - A kind of popular dance music based on Cuban and Puerto Rican styles
• audición: literally listening, can refer to a "special musical tribute to the career of a particular artist or group", performed before the beginning of a concert

  B

• baile - Literally, dance, dances are alphabetized under their descriptor, e.g. baile de cuota is alphabetized under cuota
• bambuco - An Andean style of dance music, perceived as a national music in the early 20th century, or an Andean lyric music performed along with pasillo as a common part of the música andina repertoire
• balada - In popular music, refers to a kind of "Spanish romantic popular music", found across Latin America
• bandola - A stringed instrument similar to a mandolin, used in llanera and musica andina
• bandolin - A larger relative of the bandola
• bingo bailable - a dance that includes bingo games and salsa music
• bolero - A loose term for love ballads
• bombo - A drum used in folklore groups on the Atlantic coast, laid with sticks and used to start a performance by calling on the other drums to perform; a bass drum used in traditional cumbia ensembles
• bugalú - An early form of New York salsa, popular in Colombia during the 1960s, a fusion of son with rhythm and blues
• bullerengue - A Costeño form, performed by flute-and-drum ensembles
• 'The Colombian Mambo''-the Colombian men would go to clubs and dance with each other until their legs fell off.

  C

• caja vallenata - A vallenato drum originally made from goatskin
• calle de las salsotecas - Literally, salsoteca street, referring to Calle 44, a three-mile-long road in Cali, referring to the numerous salsotecas and tabernas along the street, known for featuring salsa dura and Cuban music during the 1980s and 90s
• caballo - A rhythmic pattern played on the conga
• camaján - An alternate term for the pachuco
• campana - A cowbell
• campanero - A performer of the cowbell, notably played by audience members along with the on-stage performer
• capachos - Maracas
• música caribeña - A rarely used synonym for música antillana
• carrilera - A form of guitar-based music from the Antioquia province, associated "with the urbanizing peasant or working class"
• carrito - Small, streetside vendors of recorded music
• carrizo - A form of Colombian folk flute
• caseta - A dance hall
• cencerro - A timbales cowbell
• champeta - A form of rootsy music from the Atlantic coastal city of Cartagena, where an Afro-Colombian population developed the style; an Afro-Colombian style associated with Cartagena and Barranquilla, which combines elements of African pop, soca, zouk, mbaqanga and soukous
• champús bailable - A Caleño tradition of house parties, which began in the 1930s and were usually held on Sundays; champú, a beverage made from pineapple, corn, bitter orange leaves and a fruit called lulo
• chandé - A Costeño form, performed by flute-and-drum ensembles
• chirimía - A kind of ensemble found in the northwest corner of Chocó province
• chucu-chucu - An alternate term for raspa
• cokacolo - A teenage dancer at a agüelulo
• contrapunteo - An improvised, verbal duel
• música colombiana - Colombian music, formerly understood to refer to música andina in the 19th and early 20th century, when that style was perceived as a national music
• baile de cuota - A type of dance party in Cali's working-class neighborhoods during the mid-20th century
• cuatro - A small guitar, used in llanera''
• currulao - A marimba-based music found along the southwest littoral Valle, Cauca and Nariño provinces of Colombia, as well as Esmeraldas in Ecuador
• cumbia - A form of nation music, originally from the Atlantic coast and characterized by a "solidly grounded and complex layered rhythm with an airily syncopated melody"

  E

• empanada bailable - An alternate term for champú bailable, referring to the empanadas often served

  F

• fandango - A Costeño song form, performed by flute-and-drum ensembles
• festivales - Community dances in Cali, held in neighborhood dance halls or pavilions
• fiesta patronales - Saints days
• flauto de millo - See millo, flauto de

  G

• gaita - A folk flute; a Costeño form, performed by flute-and-drum ensembles; conjunto de gaita is a traditional cumbia ensemble
• guabina - A kind of música andina
• guacharaca - A scraper, common in vallenato
• guache - Rattles made from filling metal or gourd tubes with seeds
• guateque - Originally a Cuban word referring to a rural campesino party, which came to refer to a form of salsa dura, characterized by "slow, grinding son montunos with heavy bass and percussion; associated also with El guateque de la salsa, a popular radio show from 1989 to 1993

  I

• música de la interior - An Andean style, often used synonymously with bambuco, characterized by a gentle and melodic sound and a well-developed melody at the expense of rhythmic complexity

  J

• joropo - Originally a folk dance performed in honor of saints days and other special occasions, such as birthdays and baptism; now more often a generic word for llanera based dance music; a courtship dance associated with central Colombia and that region's cowboy culture, a "dynamic, polyrhythmic mestizo style that fuses Andalusian, African and indigenous elements"

  K

• kiosco - A community pavilion, used for musical performances
• kuisi - an indigenous flute made from a hollowed cactus stem, with a beeswax and charcoal powder mixture for the head, with a quill made from a goose or turkey feather for the mouthpiece. There are male and female versions of the pipe, the female kuisi bunsi with 5 holes, and the male kuisi sigi with two.

  L

• llamador - A drum, traditionally used in cumbia as well as modern música tropical
• llanera - A form of harp-led music

  M

• marimbula - A low-pitched thumb piano
• flauto de millo - A folk clarinet of the Atlantic coast
• melómano - A "music aficionado"
• música - Literally music, music forms are alphabetized by their descriptor, e.g. música antillana is alphabetized under antillana

  N

• música de negros - Literally black people's music, a pejorative term used by the elite to deride musics such as música antillana
• nueva ola - Literally new wave, a kind of pop-balada performed by romantic crooners, which peaked in the 1960s and 70s

  O

• orquesta - A dance band
• orquesta femenina - An all-female dance ensemble
• orquesta infantile - An all-child dance ensemble
• orquesta juvenile - An all-youth dance ensemble

  P

• pachanga - An early form of New York salsa, popular in Colombia during the 1960s, especially in the city of Cali
• pachuco - An iconic figure, a "ruffian and a hustler... an antihero", especially important in the culture surrounding the Zona de tolerancia
• parrandero - A typical lyrical focus of the more macho side of popular cumbia, referring to a boasting, aggressive and sexual "party-going man"
• pasillo - A lyric song form from the Andean region
• el paso Caleño - A traditional dance step from the city of Cali, characterized by a "rapid 'double-time' shuffle on the tips of the toes"
• pasta americana - Carrito slang referring to the thicker and higher quality vinyl of American records
• picó - Derived from the English pickup, a large sound system among DJs in Cartagena and Barranquilla during the 1980s
• pop tropical - A form of mid-1990s pop-salsa
• porro - A music genre. A village brass band; a song form performed by the flute-and-drum ensembles of the Atlantic coast region, as well as mid-20th century urban dance orquestas

  R

• raspa - A simplied form of música tropical which emerged in the late 1960s
• refajo - A street slang from the Zona de tolerancia in Cali
• rock en español - Spanish language rock music, most closely associated with the cities of Bogotá and Medellín in Colombia
• rumba - Partying or merry-making, compare to rumbero, a party

  S

• salsa - A Spanish Caribbean dance music created in New York City using elements of Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican music, a combination known in Colombia as musica antillana
• salsíbiri - A term coined by Fruko to describe his own style
• salsómano - A salsa fan
• salsoteca - A venue that plays salsa
• serenata - A pan-Latin tradition of street serenades performed by small groups of instrumentalists, especially guitarists

  T

• tambor hembra - The lead frum of the Atlantic coast drum choirs
• tambor macho - A conga-like drum that leads the basic rhythm of the Atlantic coast drum choirs
• terapia - An alternate term for champeta
• musica tropical - A form of salsa-based music innovated by Joe Arroyo; a form of dance music based on various Atlantic coast genres
• tiple - A small stringed instrument, used in llanera and musica andina

  V

• vallenato - A form of accordion-based music, related to música tropical and cumbia, and originally associated with the Atlantic Coast
• vallenato-protesta - A form of vallenato-based protest song
• verbena - Free street parties held during the December Feria and sponsored by the city of Cali
• viejoteca - Dance parties, originally appearing in 1993 for senior citizens but later appealing to middle-aged partygoers and finally abandoning any age restrictions; these viejotecas became associated with a revival of the agüelulos and nightclub scenes of the 1960s and 70s; originally from Cali, viejotecas have spread to Medellin and Cartagena

  Z

• zarzuela - Operettas