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44 albums · 1964–2025

Music of Guatemala, from the marimba and Alux Nahual to Ricardo Arjona, Gaby Moreno, Sara Curruchich and today

· 1 min read · by 1001 Albums

The Marimba La Gloria Antigueña, five players in dark suits at one long marimba with a drummer beside them
Gaby Moreno singing with a hollow-body electric guitar under purple and green stage lightsGarifuna musicians in the street with a rope-tuned wooden drum, a trumpet and a tin drum
The Marimba La Gloria Antigueña playing in Antigua Guatemala in 1979. Photo: Infrogmation, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Gaby Moreno on the stage of the Gran Sala Efraín Recinos of the Centro Cultural Miguel Ángel Asturias, Guatemala City, 2017. Photo: Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes Guatemala, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Drummers at the Pororó festival in the streets of Livingston, Izabal, in December 2015. Photo: Pitxiquin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Guatemala's popular music begins with the marimba, in the orchestras of the fifties and sixties such as Marimba Orquesta Gallito and Marimba Chapinlandia with Luna de Xelajú, goes on to the rock of Alux Nahual, Bohemia Suburbana, Viernes Verde and Malacates Trébol Shop, the pop of Viento en Contra and Ricardo Arjona's Animal nocturno and Historias, the Garifuna drums of Livingston in Ibimeni and Garinagu Wagia, Magda Angélica and Sara Curruchich, who sings in Kaqchikel, the rap of Rebeca Lane, Balam Ajpu and Bacteria Soundsystem Crew, Gaby Moreno's Ilusión, Easy Easy and Jesse Baez today, and Joaquín Orellana's marimba imaginaria and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional for the concert hall. The list has 44 records from 1964 to 2025, one or two by each name and only a small part of what they made; the marimba orchestras beyond these few, the song of the highlands beyond a nod, the chirimía and the tun of the fiestas, the church music, the jazz, and most of the classical tradition from Jorge Sarmientos on are left for other lists. About 36 hours of music, 4 days of a few records each.

By genre

Rock 18%Folk & Country 13%Pop 8%Other 61%
  • Rock 18%
  • Folk & Country 13%
  • Pop 8%
  • Other 61%

The genres named most: guatemalan, rock, pop, singer-songwriter, folk, hip hop.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Guatemala 44. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1960s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.