Bachata (music)

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This article is about music genre. For dance type, see Bachata (dance).

Bachata

Dominican folk bachata musicians - Amargue Bachata Quintet

Cultural origins Dominican Republic

Subgenres

 Traditional bachata

 bachatón

Regional scenes

 Dominican Republic

 Cuba

 Puerto Rico
 United States

 Mexico

 Curaçao

 Haiti

 Panama

 Chile

 Colombia

 El Salvador

 Honduras

 Venezuela

 Guatemala

 Nicaragua

 Costa Rica

 Ecuador
 Other topics

 Merengue

 kompa

Bachata is a genre of Latin American music that originated in the Dominican

Republic in the first half of the 20th century. It is a fusion of southwestern
European influences, mainly Spanish guitar music, with some remnants of
indigenous Taino and Sub Saharan African musical elements, representative of
the cultural diversity of the Dominican population.[1]
The first recorded compositions of bachata were done by José Manuel
Calderón from the Dominican Republic. Bachata originates
from bolero and son (and later, from the mid-1980s, merengue). The original
term used to name the genre was amargue ("bitterness", "bitter music" or "blues
music"), until the rather ambiguous (and mood-neutral) term bachata became
popular. The form of dance, bachata, also developed with the music.[2]
Bachata arose in the working class areas of the country. During the 1960s and
early 1970s, it was seen as music of the lower class by the Dominican elites,
when it was known as amargue music. The genre's popularity arose from the
late 1980s and early 1990s, when the rhythm began to reach the mainstream
media. The genre was declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of
humanity by UNESCO.[3]

A couple dancing bachata

The earliest bachata originated in the countryside of the Dominican Republic in

the first half of the 20th century. José Manuel Calderón recorded the first
bachata song, "Borracho de amor" in 1962. The genre mixed the pan-
Latin American style called bolero with more elements coming from son, and
the troubadour singing tradition common in Latin America. During much of its
history, bachata music was disregarded by Dominican elite and associated with
rural underdevelopment and crime. As recently as the 1980s, bachata was
considered too vulgar, crude and musically rustic to be broadcast on television
or radio in the Dominican Republic.
In the 1990s, however, bachata's instrumentation changed from nylon string
Spanish guitar and maracas of traditional bachata to the electric steel string and
guira of modern bachata. Bachata further transformed in the 21st century with
the creation of urban bachata styles by bands such as Monchy y
Alexandra and Aventura.[4] These new modern styles of bachata became an
 international phenomenon, and today bachata is one of the most popular styles
of Latin music.

Bachata

Contents

 1Instrumentations
 2Music history
 3See also
 4References
 5External links

Instrumentations[edit]
The typical bachata group consists of five instruments: requinto (lead guitar),
segunda (rhythm guitar), bass guitar, bongos and güira. The segunda serves
the purpose of adding syncopation to the music. Bachata groups mainly play a
straightforward style of bolero (lead guitar instrumentation
using arpeggiated repetitive chords is a distinctive characteristic of bachata),
but when they change to merengue-based bachata, the percussionist will switch
from bongo to a tambora drum. In the 1960s and 1970s, maracas were used
instead of güira. The change in the 1980s from maracas to the more versatile
güira was made as bachata was becoming more dance oriented. [2]

Music history[edit]
Main article: Bachata (dance)
The first Dominican bachatas were recorded immediately after the death
of Trujillo, whose 30-year dictatorship was accompanied by censorship. José
Manuel Calderón is credited as having recorded the first bachata singles:
("Borracho de amor" and "Que será de mi (Condena)") released on 45 rpm in
1962. After Trujillo's death, the floodgates were opened: following Calderon's
historic bachata debut came more recordings by the likes of Rodobaldo
Duartes, Rafael Encarnacion, Ramoncito Cabrera, El Chivo Sin Ley, Corey
Perro, Antonio Gómez Sacero, Luis Segura, Louis Loizides, Eladio Romero
Santos, Ramón Cordero and many more. The 1960s saw the birth of the
Dominican music industry and of the bachata music which would dominate it.
While the bachatas being recorded in the 1960s had a distinctly Dominican
flavor, they were regarded at the time as a variant of bolero, as the
term bachata, which originally referred to an informal rustic party, had not yet
come into use. This term was first applied to the music by those seeking to
disparage it. The higher echelons of Dominican society felt that bachata music
was an expression of cultural backwardness, and a campaign ensued to brand
bachata in this negative light.[5] Bachata was not always legal, but to enjoy this
kind of music it was considered "vulgar and sensual" and the higher class did
not want to ruin the reputation so they did not dance nor listen. [6] If one did
dance bachata or listen to bachata it was considered lowly. Since bachata was
illegal, it was not very popular but that has changed throughout the years since
many famous artists have traveled and made this kind of music more heard and
more popular but yet it is not as popular as the national dance merengue.
Bachata music was seen as having sexualized lyrics because the musicians
that wrote this kind of music did not have any musical or academic schooling
which lead to the dancing being sexual as well. [7]
The 1970s were dark years for bachata. The music was seldom played on the
radio, and almost unmentioned on television and in print. Bachateros were also
barred from performing in high society venues – having to content themselves
instead with gigs in bars and brothels in the country's poorest neighborhoods.
The music was influenced by its surroundings; sex, despair and crime were
amongst numerous topics the genre highlighted. This only furthered the cause
of those seeking to tar bachata as a music of the barrios. Despite its unofficial
censorship, bachata remained widely popular, while orchestral merengue
benefited from the country's major publicity outlets. However, bachata
continued to outsell merengue[citation needed]. Some bachateros to emerge from this era
were Marino Perez and Leonardo Paniagua.
By the early 1980s, bachata's popularity could not be denied. Due to popular
demand, more radio stations began playing bachata, and bachateros soon
found themselves performing on television as well. Bachata in the meantime
had begun to take on a more dance-hall sound: tempos increased, guitar
playing became punchier, and call and response singing more prevalent.
Bachata style merengues, or guitar merengues, also became an increasingly
important part of the bachata repertoire. Blas Durán was the first to record with
electric guitar in his 1987 bachata-merengue hit, "Mujeres hembras". [5]
By the early 1990s, the sound was further modernized and the bachata scene
was dominated by two new young stars: Luis Vargas and Antony Santos. Both
incorporated a large number of bachata-merengues in their repertoires. Santos,
Vargas and the many new style bachateros who would follow achieved a level
of stardom which was unimaginable to the bachateros who preceded them.
They were the first generation of pop bachata artists and received all the hype
and image branding typical of commercial pop music elsewhere. It was also at
this time that bachata began to emerge internationally as a music of Hispanic
dance-halls.
Juan Luis Guerra's Grammy-winning 1992 release, Bachata Rosa, is routinely
credited[by whom?] with making the genre more acceptable and helping bachata
achieve legitimacy and international recognition. Although he used the
word bachata in the album title, none of the songs reflected the distinctive
bachata sound.[8]
By the beginning of the 21st century, the bachata group Aventura had taken the
bachata envisioned by Juan Luis Guerra in the early 1990s to new heights. Led
by lead singer Anthony "Romeo" Santos, they revolutionized and modernized
the genre. They sold out Madison Square Garden numerous times and released
countless top ten hits on the hot Latin charts including two number one hits "Por
un segundo" and "Dile al Amor". Other big bachata acts in the decade included
"Monchy y Alexandra" and Los Toros Band. By the beginning of the new
decade, Aventura had split up because group member Henry Santos wanted to
go solo, leaving the others on their own. Today, parallel to bachata music,
fusion genres arose in Western countries such as the US, combining some of
the rhythmic elements of bachata music with elements of Western music such
as hip hop, R&B, pop, techno and more. This fusion genre is quite popular
among Western audiences, and often includes covers of Western pop songs
played on MTV and non-Latin radio stations. Notable artists of the new fusion
genre are Prince Royce, Xtreme and Toby Love, among others. By 2011,
former Aventura member Romeo Santos also joined the fusion bandwagon,
releasing several new albums which became popular in the US and other
Western countries. Not only has bachata's popularity changed but so has its
lyrics; before the lyrics were mostly about a cheating relationship and hurt
feelings but now it talks about love and is more romantic. According to Bachata:
Música Del Pueblo ("Bachata: Music of the People") the writers said: "In the
past decade, bachata has been transformed from a ballad-style guitar music of
the rural poor in the Dominican Republic to the hottest new music in the
international Latino music market.