Playlist Central

Originating in Colombia as a hybridized folk style that blended of European, African and native characteristics and spreading out across Latin America, cumbia has played a part in genres as disparate as big band-infused dance music, Mexican regional pop and Peruvian psychedelic rock, each of them linked by that distinct chugga-chugging beat. This playlist traces contemporary cumbia from Cruz Martinez's boy band pop to Bomba Estereo's alt-dance grooves -- and everything in between.