Champeta
Encyclopedia
Champeta is the cultural phenomenon and musical genre of independent and local origin from the African descendents in
the areas in and around Cartagena de Indias, (Colombia
). It is also associated with the culture of Palenque of San Basilio.
Since before the 1920s, the inhabitants of the neighborhoods farthest from the center of Cartagena, those of the poorest social strata and of African descent, have been called 'champetudo'. The economic elite used this designation as an attempt to devalue this vibrant culture. The name, ambiguously accepted and transformed, originates from the relationship of these people, with the knife called "champeta", as it was associated with vulgarity, poverty and blackness. This culture has a past historically marked with slavery and mistreatment with its center in the oldest districts of the Isla Caimán, currently called Olaya, and the Pozón district.
At the beginning of the 1970s the Champeta culture became more visible at a national level in Colombia through a series of diverse and complex dances set to the rhythms of Caribbean music. This music was principally a mix of genres such as salsa and jíbaro but later included reggae. This music was played over large loudspeakers, popularly called "picós", that were invented during the 1960s in Cartegena. Equipped with these sound systems they held dancce competitions and other events. Those dances were called "therapy" because of their ability to help people relax and
free themselves from the economic problems of the country.
In the 1980s "creole therapy" became a new genre of music, sung and interpreted by people from Cartegena and San Basillo, later joined by people from Barranquilla, Santa Marta and the rest of the country. Baranquilla played an important role in the commercialization of this genre of music. Subsequently, the music became popular in picós. Soon, it was known as "creole therapy", "Colombian therapy", and finally, Champeta.
. I generate Therapy was born like an adaptation of African rates (soukous
, highlife
, mbquanga, juju
) with Antillean vibrations (rap
-ragga
reggae
, Haitian compas, French Antillean zouk
, soca
and calypso
) and influences of descending music of the native and afrocolombians (bullerengue, mapalé, zambapalo and small canoe). This fusion of rates formed a new urban musical culture in the Caribbean context that consolidated in the cartagenins quarters in the middle of the Eighties. Soon in the nineties it underwent a series of changes as much in its contents, as in its music, accompanied by digital phenomen, plates (arrhythmic interventions) and as much being loved as rejected by the sectors elites of the country, generating therefore I generate differentiated from its origins enough that inspired it.
In his beginnings one spread through the powerful equipment of sound denominated tips (of pick-up) that sound in the clubs or houses. It is characterized because the rhythmical base prevails over the melodics and harmonic lines, turning it a musical dance expression in which an overflowing force and a plasticity predominate. The instruments used in the execution of this glad and contagious rate are the electrical voice, battery, guitars, the low one, congas, and the sintetizer, which add rhythmical effects.
This musical genre has like unique element of a division temporary of three accelerations, initial music, the choir and a third called element the Despeluque, that is own of strong and repetitive rates accompanied generally by plates (digital interventions).
With a popular and full language of inventive the champeteros sing its experiences. The letters, superposed to African tracks or with original music, demonstrate the disobedience attitude of the discriminated Afro-Americans sectors, that attack against the social and economic exclusion to tell their dreams of change and progress.
The Champeta at the moment has the called Hymn "I am Champetúo of Michel" who speaks of the pride of being people champeta and of problematic on the stratification and its history.
The Dj Chawala of the King de Rocha in the video, like part protagonist of this culture, is part of the Regional Hall Artists 2007 Bad Hall Eye, thanks to the intellectual support and of investigation titled the Polarization of the Champeta of the artist Rafael Escallón Miranda on this culture and its manifestations, who as much in this as in previous occasions has developed manifest champetudos plastics, related to the communication, the policy and the relation of this culture with the characteristic of weapon-like the transgressor or contestatario, it's important work but alludes to the tips and PIKÓ TOTEM is titled becoming in year 2005 leaves from the collection Permanent of the Museum of Modern Art of Cartagena and where, in 2006, she was awarded a spot in the Hall Art and Sport of the American Games Center and the Caribbean Cartagena of Indies.
the areas in and around Cartagena de Indias, (Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
). It is also associated with the culture of Palenque of San Basilio.
Etymology
The word 'Champeta' refers to the short, curved knife of the same name, used at work, in the kitchen and as a defensive and offensive weapon in the region.History
The word "Champeta" was first used as a cultural identifier in the 1920s, it was used to identify a dance in the 1970s and a musical genre in the 1980s.Since before the 1920s, the inhabitants of the neighborhoods farthest from the center of Cartagena, those of the poorest social strata and of African descent, have been called 'champetudo'. The economic elite used this designation as an attempt to devalue this vibrant culture. The name, ambiguously accepted and transformed, originates from the relationship of these people, with the knife called "champeta", as it was associated with vulgarity, poverty and blackness. This culture has a past historically marked with slavery and mistreatment with its center in the oldest districts of the Isla Caimán, currently called Olaya, and the Pozón district.
At the beginning of the 1970s the Champeta culture became more visible at a national level in Colombia through a series of diverse and complex dances set to the rhythms of Caribbean music. This music was principally a mix of genres such as salsa and jíbaro but later included reggae. This music was played over large loudspeakers, popularly called "picós", that were invented during the 1960s in Cartegena. Equipped with these sound systems they held dancce competitions and other events. Those dances were called "therapy" because of their ability to help people relax and
free themselves from the economic problems of the country.
In the 1980s "creole therapy" became a new genre of music, sung and interpreted by people from Cartegena and San Basillo, later joined by people from Barranquilla, Santa Marta and the rest of the country. Baranquilla played an important role in the commercialization of this genre of music. Subsequently, the music became popular in picós. Soon, it was known as "creole therapy", "Colombian therapy", and finally, Champeta.
Cultural Aspects and social Fact
The classic conception of the phenomenon champeta is centered in the existence of four aspects or “columns” of the culture: champeta music (or Therapy), the Benbocata (or slang), Picó (or pick-up), and the perreos (or celebrations). There are some who give the same importance to other aspects, as the dance, the political activism, the design of the clothes, and the rest of cultural elements.Music Champeta or “Therapy Creole”
It has been a contemporary rate that was born for 26 years in the city of Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) with a great influence of palenque San Basilio and which through the encounter of Music of the Caribbean of the, years 80 that were made in Cartagena it extended soon at national level and influenced reciprocally in similar international sorts like the ReggaetonReggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
. I generate Therapy was born like an adaptation of African rates (soukous
Soukous
Soukous is a dance music genre that originated in the two neighbouring countries of Belgian Congo and French Congo during the 1930s and early 1940s, and which has gained popularity throughout Africa...
, highlife
Highlife
Highlife is a musical genre that originated in Ghana in the 1900s and spread to Sierra Leone, Nigeria and other West African countries by 1920...
, mbquanga, juju
Juju
A Juju is a supernatural power ascribed to an object.Juju may also refer to:-Geography:* Juju , one of seven districts on the island of Rotuma in Fiji* Juju , a village in the district of Juju on the island of Rotuma-Albums:...
) with Antillean vibrations (rap
Rap
Rap may refer to:*Rapping, performance in which rhyming lyrics are used, with or without musical accompaniment ; while an MC performs spoken verses in time to a beat/ melody**Hip hop subculture**Hip hop music...
-ragga
Ragga
-Origins:Ragga originated in Jamaica during the 1980s, at the same time that electronic dance music's popularity was increasing globally. One of the reasons for ragga's swift propagation is that it is generally easier and less expensive to produce than reggae performed on traditional musical...
reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, Haitian compas, French Antillean zouk
Zouk
Zouk is a style of rhythmic music originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe & Martinique. Zouk means "party" or "festival" in the local Antillean Creole of French, although the word originally referred to, and is still used to refer to, a popular dance, based on the Polish dance, the...
, soca
Soca music
Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....
and calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
) and influences of descending music of the native and afrocolombians (bullerengue, mapalé, zambapalo and small canoe). This fusion of rates formed a new urban musical culture in the Caribbean context that consolidated in the cartagenins quarters in the middle of the Eighties. Soon in the nineties it underwent a series of changes as much in its contents, as in its music, accompanied by digital phenomen, plates (arrhythmic interventions) and as much being loved as rejected by the sectors elites of the country, generating therefore I generate differentiated from its origins enough that inspired it.
In his beginnings one spread through the powerful equipment of sound denominated tips (of pick-up) that sound in the clubs or houses. It is characterized because the rhythmical base prevails over the melodics and harmonic lines, turning it a musical dance expression in which an overflowing force and a plasticity predominate. The instruments used in the execution of this glad and contagious rate are the electrical voice, battery, guitars, the low one, congas, and the sintetizer, which add rhythmical effects.
This musical genre has like unique element of a division temporary of three accelerations, initial music, the choir and a third called element the Despeluque, that is own of strong and repetitive rates accompanied generally by plates (digital interventions).
With a popular and full language of inventive the champeteros sing its experiences. The letters, superposed to African tracks or with original music, demonstrate the disobedience attitude of the discriminated Afro-Americans sectors, that attack against the social and economic exclusion to tell their dreams of change and progress.
The Champeta at the moment has the called Hymn "I am Champetúo of Michel" who speaks of the pride of being people champeta and of problematic on the stratification and its history.
The Dj Chawala of the King de Rocha in the video, like part protagonist of this culture, is part of the Regional Hall Artists 2007 Bad Hall Eye, thanks to the intellectual support and of investigation titled the Polarization of the Champeta of the artist Rafael Escallón Miranda on this culture and its manifestations, who as much in this as in previous occasions has developed manifest champetudos plastics, related to the communication, the policy and the relation of this culture with the characteristic of weapon-like the transgressor or contestatario, it's important work but alludes to the tips and PIKÓ TOTEM is titled becoming in year 2005 leaves from the collection Permanent of the Museum of Modern Art of Cartagena and where, in 2006, she was awarded a spot in the Hall Art and Sport of the American Games Center and the Caribbean Cartagena of Indies.