Joropo Alternativo Surging in Latin Music

If you haven’t heard of “Joropo Alternativo”, you’re not alone. I just learned of it through the article I’m sharing below.

Four groups have taken to the task of preserving this piece of musical culture. Not surprisingly, they sparked a longtime debate of whether experimenting with our folk rhythms helps preserve or contributes to the decline of our culture.

Joropo Alternativo Keeps Culture Alive

Just like AltLatino is all about an alternative way of using Latin music genres to create something new and contemporary, “Joropo Alternativo” does the same with traditional Joropo.

Joropo is mostly known as “música llanera”, from the southern plains of Venezuela, and northern Colombia. But it turns out that is only one of the several variants of the genre. One of Venezuela’s most emblematic songs, “Alma Llanera”, is a Joropo llanero.

The instruments used in the Joropo are the harp, maracas, and the Venezuelan cuatro.

I’ll make a short parenthesis here; the Venezuelan cuatro is different than its homologous instruments from Puerto Rico and Cuba. The Puerto Rican cuatro has five pairs of strings. The Cuban cuatro has four pairs of strings. However, the Venezuelan cuatro has four solo strings, not in pairs.

Four Bands Define New Music Genre

This interesting article highlights four bands that have taken Joropo as the base of their music, but each given it their own contemporary twist, including elements of rock. What they have done is give this traditional genre a modern flavor, perhaps more palatable (they hope) to the younger generations which show little interest in the old music.

By creatively modernizing the Joropo, they are betting they can help preserve the music that characterizes them as people from this region. Saying it another way, they are making the old, new again.

Naturally, these music bands have found a group of critics that believe that in order to preserve the Joropo, it must be played in its traditional form, and no other way. The debate continues.

In my opinion, both types of Joropo, traditional and modern, are needed to maintain this part of musical culture alive. This is also true for other Latin music folk rhythms.

The four bands driving the new “Joropo Alternativo” are Canapiare, Chimó Psicodélico, El Cuatro, and The Criollos.

The article linked below provide a short description of each band with a musical video from each.

I recommend you check it out!

Joropo Alternativo: Otra Manera de Contar la Cultura Llanera