Christmas in Colombia: why do you listen to Los Hispanos, Pastor López?

Tamales: differences between Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela 2:39

(CNN Spanish) -

Christmas in Colombia sounds like 'Buitraguito', Antonio Posada, Loco Quintero, Rodolfo Aicardi and Los Hispanos.

But it also sounds like many Venezuelan musicians such as Pastor López, Los Melódicos, the Billos Caracas Boys, all of them artists who had their golden age between the 60s and 80s, but their musical legacy has survived until now.

Since the end of September or the beginning of October, this type of music begins to sound in Colombia and infects many.

It is a stamp of the season.

(For

millennials

understand that in Colombia reggaeton, salsa, merengue sounds; Shakira, Maluma, JBalvin, Carlos Vives and much more. But don't deny it, there is something about this music that makes it a must see for Christmas).

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Those rhythms are traditional in the December times in Colombia.

They can vary, of course, from region to region.

But in general, the type of songs heard in December in Colombia have their roots in the middle of the 20th century, when peasant musicians began to make music in the Antioquia region and the coffee region (in the center of the country) and then a long transformation, Venezuelan musicians from the so-called 'Big Bands' are here to stay.

Today they sound decades later at Christmas in Colombia.

• Some of the most remembered songs of Pastor López

Listen here to a playlist with some of the artists that sound around this time in Colombia.

The beginnings of Christmas music in Colombia

Guillermo Buitrago, better known as 'Buitraguito', is one of the most recognized traditional artists in Colombia.

His music, accompanied by guitars, sounded to peasant rhythms, with a ragged voice that put a stamp on the typical music of the Paisa, the northwestern area of ​​Colombia.

Guitar, guacharaca and sombrero.

"After Guillermo Buitrago all our peasant musicians arrived with what is called paisa parrandera music," Alberto Burgos Herrera, music researcher and writer of books such as "Parrandera paisa music," told CNN. music in Antioquia.

"That music of all those peasant musicians (...) in the year did not sound at all, only in October. At the end of October it began to sound and it only sounded until mid-January."

Those peasants who began to make "parrandera paisa" music arrived in Medellín around 1948, when the country was going through a wave of harsh violence due to the so-called 'Bogotazo', which occurred due to partisan violence after the murder of the liberal caudillo Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, according to Burgos. Herrera.

"After that, in 1957 what we call the maximum danceable youth revolution that has occurred in Colombia in all times began in 1957, which is when a group called Los Teenagers appeared here in Medellín," adds Burgos Herrera.

It was a dance music group with influences from the Colombian Caribbean coast, which brought together cumbia rhythms, salsa mixes, dance music.

Venezuelan music and artists conquer Colombia

Around 1964, what Burgos Herrera calls the "nationalization of Venezuelan music" began.

"In 1964 the teacher Luis María Frómeta, director of La Billos Caracas Boys and the director of Los Melódicos —another Venezuelan band—, began to live in Colombia and began there in Santa Marta, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Montería and later they came to Medellín and Bogotá, "says Burgos Herrera.

At that time, Venezuela had the influence of Dominican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican music.

But when they arrived in Colombia, "they realized that the kills of dance music did not have to be found there ... but that it was nothing more than crossing the border and they had it here in Colombia," says Burgos.

So these Venezuelan bands open the musical world in Colombia and stay to live in the holidays until today.

But although this music is traditional danceable, "it does not obey a Colombian tradition as far as they are in territories", that is, it is indigenous Colombian music, "however the tradition of listening to these groups in December is absolutely undeniable", Jhon Edison Montenegro, a music magister at the Javeriana University and professor at the music school of the Sergio Arboleda University in Bogotá, told CNN.

Why?

"It is a matter of representativeness and there is another element that is idiosyncratic," said Montenegro, talking about why this type of music is so popular in December.

"There is a whole issue of record history in front of Christmas in why most of these artists released their records at that time," adds Montenegro.

Also, this music is closely related to the December parties, with live shows, and because in those boom years it sounded especially in December.

"The party music that is heard in December is designed from a marketing point of view to be sung, celebrated and promoted in December to be a success in sales," adds Montenegro.

These elements, the tradition and the marketing that took place during those years, he says, converge so that in Colombia music from, for example, 'La Billos' can be heard and it sounds like December.

"There is an emotional connection there."

'The 14 cannon shots' and the construction of a tradition

Another reason why this holiday music is current can be explained from marketing and a traditional list of hits that for many years was the most anticipated by commercial stations: the "14 Cañonazos".

It is a compilation of the most important tropical musical hits of the year made by a local label called Discos Fuentes.

These "cannon shots" began in the 1960s and are in force today.

By 2021 the '14 cannon shots' volume 61 were launched.

"The 14 cannon shots always met in the last quarter of the year, the launch was made in October," Tony Peñaredonda, general manager of Discos Fuentes in Medellín, told CNN.

What did it sound like?

It was danceable and it was Rodolfo Aicardi, Guillermo Buitrago, Pastor López, the 'Loco' Quintero ... all those references of music that do not have an expiration date ".

So, in a country as traditional to celebrate Christmas as Colombia, those musical successes accompanied the families to make nativity scenes, put together the Christmas tree, make Narilla and donuts.

"The music was the soundtrack to the family tradition," he says.

And that tradition has been built by an "affective bond," says Montenegro, who gives as an example a house in which the parents celebrated with the music of Pastor López, La Billos, Buitraguito, Los Corraleros de Majagual, etc., and then the The next generation remembers how their family celebrated with such music.

"From longing and sentimentality it was celebrated with this type of music."

Now, to the answer as to why there has been no renewal of traditional December music so far, the answer may lie in the change in the music industry, according to Burgos Herrera, the Paisa music researcher.

"There are no more orchestras. Here there are no permanent orchestras. Formerly, in the Lucho Bermúdez orchestra, everyone was employed by Lucho Bermúdez and just. They were permanent orchestras," he says.

But, he adds, record companies, in the late 1980s, started mixing musicians and then started hiring musicians to play shows.

"Then the orchestras ended and that Venezuelan music that took all our melodies and threw them to the entire continent ended," says Burgos Herrera.

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