Grupera (also known as Grupero or Onda Grupera) is a genre of Regional Mexican music. It reached the height of its popularity in the 1980s, especially in rural areas. The music has roots in the rock groups of the 1960s, but today generally consists of four or more musicians using electric guitars, keyboards and drums. The music increased in popularity in the 1990s and became commercially viable. Grupero artists typically perform rancheras, corridos, cumbias, ballads, boleros and chilenas/huapangos.
The original wave of Mexican rock bands got their start mostly with Spanish covers of popular English rock songs. After this initial stage, they moved on to include in their repertoire traditional ranchera songs, in addition to cumbias and ballads. Thus, the 1970s saw the rise of a number of grupera bands that specialized in romantic ballads and songs that up to that point had only been sung with mariachi.