Colombia's lively accordion pop music, vallenato, developed in a region running from the Caribbean coast to Colombia's eastern mountains, bordering Venezuela. The term vallenato is sometimes thought to mean a person from from Valledupar, capital of the northern state of Cesar. But the word actually refers to a dry, flaky and discolored skin condition resulting from mosquito bites in the area. People with this disease were often called vallenato, which means literally the skin of a baby whale. Later, the term was used as a derogatory way to describe the region's poor local musicians.

Vallenato music features the button accordion, bass, caja (a small hand drum), and guiro (scraper), a singer, and sometimes a cowbell. The accordion melodies have a punchy directness that some say comes from older indigenous flute and reed music played on local instruments made from turkey quills and sugar cane. The buttons themselves help to give the accordion melodies a percussive quality. The lively push and pull of highly independent bass lines is a mark of vallenato. This music is thought to have more indigenous Indian and less African input than, say, cumbia. But the aggressive syncopation of the bass lines does suggest an African element. Vallenato lyrics, always sung in Spanish, deal with love and rural village life. Vallenato musicians are known for their musical duels where accordionists compete with musical and verbal barbs, trying to outdo each other.

In his 1980s film "Shotguns and Accordions: Music of the Marijuana Regions of Columbia" film maker Jeremy Marre reported that during the 1970s, many vallenato musicians made their livings performing for the big marijuana drug lords, but that once more powerful and violent cocaine growers moved into the region, these musicians were pushed aside by cumbia musicians, favored by the new powers.