From the 1970s Cuban dance music reinvented itself: first with the songo of Los Van Van, then, in the late 1980s, with timba. Both build on rumba and mix it with funk, jazz and the whole Cuban tradition.
In the early 1970s Juan Formell's Los Van Van created songo. Drummer Blas Egües and later José Luis "Changuito" Quintana expanded the timbales with a kick drum, sometimes also a snare and hi-hat. The core of songo is rumba: clave-based patterns and a freely playing conga, like the quinto. Songo was the first Cuban dance rhythm to blend rumba with North American funk, and the best-known rhythm of the post-revolution era.
The Latin jazz group Irakere of Chucho Valdés was another precursor. Its flutist José Luis "El Tosco" Cortés later founded NG La Banda, whose album En La Calle (1989) many consider the first timba album. Around 1988 the name timba brava came into use.
Timba flourished in the Special Period, the economic crisis after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Tourism opened up, and lyrics full of street slang about its effects caused controversy. Me Sube La Fiebre (1992) by La Charanga Habanera is seen as the start of the "timba explosion"; other big names are Manolín, Paulito FG, Issac Delgado, Klímax, Bamboleo and Manolito y su Trabuco.
Timba is marked by the drum kit, bass tumbaos that stop and start, and switching between gears such as the presión. It is danced as casino. Timba is past its peak, but the major groups still play and record, and many musicians now work in the US and Europe.