- Los Shapis
Los Shapis is a chicha group from
Peru .They rose to prominence with their 1981 hit song, "El Aguajal" (which means "The Swamp"), a modern adaptation of traditional
huayno . They were noted for their rainbow coloured costumes. Tha Shapis was one of the first "Chicha" groups. "Chicha", that also designs a traditional beverage made of corn (corn bier), is the name of a new musical rhythm created in the 1980s in Lima. It uses electric and acoustic instruments and was inspired on traditional andean rhythms like the huayno. In the 1980s Chicha was mostly heard and danced in Lima's poor suburbs (the so called "Conos") by the rural migrants (and by their children) that came to Peru's capital since the 1950s and settled in the sand hills that surrounded Lima. Today Chicha music, and its latest musical evolutions, can be heard all over the city, and the Shapis has become a mythical group whose vocalist (el Chapulín) life has lately inspired a new TV soap.The "Chicha" was the first of many other fusion rhythms (tecnocumbia, cumbia tropical) that could be described as a mixture of Colombia's traditional cumbia, andean rhythms, tropical Caribbean rhythms (guaracha, bolero), and electronic music; these new rhythms express today's most popular Peruvian music.References and links
* Chicha music - Peru: Arturo Quispe Lazaro [http://interculturalidad.org/numero03/4_02b.htm]
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