[1] Unlike other styles of cumbia, the chicha subgenre's harmonics are based on the pentatonic scale typical of Andean music.
The rhythmic electric guitar in chicha is played with upstrokes, following patterns derived from Peruvian coastal creole waltz.
Loosely inspired by Colombian cumbia, it incorporated the distinctive pentatonic scales of Andean melodies, Cuban percussion, and the psychedelic sounds of surf guitars, wah-wah pedals and combo organs or Moog synthesizers.
[2] During the 1980s the Amerindian immigrants to coastal cities that nurtured the subgenre became working and middle class individuals and a market for chicha commercial radio.
Another famous band in the 1980s were Los Shapis, a provincial group established by their 1981 hit "El Aguajal" (The Swamp), a version of a traditional huayno.
Many songs relate to the great majority of people who have to make a living selling their labour and goods in the unofficial "informal economy", ever threatened by the police.
Los Shapis' standard "El Ambulante" (The Street Seller) opens with a reference to the rainbow colours of the Inca flag and the colour of the ponchos the people use to keep warm and transport their wares:[citation needed] My flag is of the colours and the stamp of the rainbowFor Peru and AmericaWatch out or the police will take your bundle off you!Aye, aye, aye, how sad it is to liveHow sad it is to dreamI'm a street seller, I'm a proletarianSelling shoes, selling food, selling jacketsI support my home.Current exposure of all social classes of Peru to chicha as well as a renovation in lyrical content, to include expressions of animation have led to its revival.