The genre's name reflects the coastal culture of Peru, and the local evolution of the term criollo, a word originally denoting high-status people of full Spanish ancestry, into a more socially inclusive element of the nation.

It also extends as criollo music the Marinera, the Tondero, the Festejo, the Zamacueca, coplas de amor fino, landó, among others.

Peru's national Día de la Canción Criolla takes place on October 31.

The vals criollo is a unique musical form characterized by 3/4 time, originating in the coast of Peru.

This type of music includes elaborate Spanish guitar work accompanied in recent years by cajón and castanets with lyrics that talk about love, social dilemmas and nostalgia.

In this musical and choreographic form, the practitioners can compete in a song of counterpoint of variable time, according to the enthusiasm and the circumstances of the meeting.

"The dancer must go to the dance floor wearing their best clothes but with bare feet, in the same way they did the rural northern girls of the nineteenth century."

The main characteristic that differentiates it from the typical Marinera is its repetitive guitar tundete related to gypsy band trumpet music.

It has African influence in its chorus form and sometimes the use of checo, an instrument built using dry gourd to give "black rhythm".

Cities like Morropón, Chulucanas, San Juan de Bigote, La Matanza, and Salitral were dotted with rice and soapweed plantations where many black slaves lived, and due to the proximity to the mountain range, Andean Indian migrants as well, the later brought the melancholic Yaraví (Harawi) from the Andean highlands, melting it with the Hispanic-African Cumanana of the coast, creating the famous northern term "triste con Fuga de Tondero" (sad with Fuga of Tondero), which is very popular in the yunga areas of Lambayeque (Chongoyapana).

As in the Tondero piurano, the dance represents the chase of the rooster to the hen, the love of birds and the Pelea de Gallos, themes so popular within the central and northern coast of Peru.

The woman dancer wears a nightgown called anaco that protrudes as a blouse over the wide skirt attached to the waist.

The famous "Dormilonas", artistic earrings made of filigree, are also very colourful, the work of the town's goldsmiths.

Interpreters such as Lucila Campos, Caitro Soto, Susana Baca, Eva Ayllon, and the Peru Negro dance company, among others, have brought these genres to the world's attention.

Victoria Santa Cruz (who directed the National School of Folklore in Peru), worked to develop this genre around 40 or 50 years ago.

It can be seen as a celebration of Peru's independence and the emancipation of slaves, or as an attempt to reinvent diaspora African music without reference to slavery.