Vallenato

Vallenato is a folk genre from Colombia's Caribbean coast, built on the trio of button accordion, caja vallenata drum and guacharaca scraper, and organised in four traditional rhythmic airs: paseo, merengue, puya and son. Its songs chronicle local news, landscape and love in the Cesar and La Guajira region, performed by composer-singers such as *Alejo Durán*, *Emiliano Zuleta* and *Rafael Escalona*. From the 1970s, groups led by *Binomio de Oro de América* and the singer *Diomedes Díaz* modernised the sound with electric instruments, and *Carlos Vives* carried it to international pop audiences in the 1990s.