Salsa music incorporates multiple styles and variations.  Most specifically, salsa, which means sauce, refers to a particular style developed by the 1960s and '70s Cuban and Puerto Rican immigrants to the New York City area, and stylistic descendants like 1980s salsa romantica.  Modern salsa is a dance-oriented genre and is closely associated with a style of salsa dancing.  Salsa bands play a wide variety of songs, including pieces based on plenas and bombas, cumbia, vallenato and merengue. The most important instrumentation in salsa is the percussion, which is played by a wide variety of instruments, including claves, cowbells, timbales and conga.  Apart from percussion, a variety of melodic instruments are commonly used as accompaniment, such as a guitar, trumpets, trombones, the piano, and many others, all depending on the performing artists. Bands typically consist of up to a dozen people, one of whom serves as band leader, directing the music as it is played.