Bachatta
Bachata
Bachata – is a style of dance and music, which originally emerged and evolved in countryside of the Dominican Republic. The songs were usually very romantic and sentimental, about sadness and broken hearts. The new style was indeed initially called amargue, which means music of bitterness, until bachata appeared – a word of different meanings, but rather neutral in terms of feeling.
Bachata emerged among servants, who used to sing this sort of songs after work. They played their music not necessarily using proper instruments. Almost anything could be an instrument. In some areas in the Dominica Republic the word bachata is used as a synonym of litter, but most people say that it means a party, when people have a good time.
Bachata wasn’t originally very popular as it is nowadays. It was rather embarrassing to be caught listening to bachata in nineteen sixties…
History
When some popular radio station started to play merengue and salsa, musicians who played bachata and their agents decided that it was a good time to promote and distribute bachata too.
Like most Latin-American music, bachata is dominated by male performers. The most important first bachateros are José Manuel Calderón, Eladio Romero Santos, Edilio Paredes, Luis Segura, Ramon Cordero and Rafael Encarnación.
Modern bachata is somehow different from what it was originally – its now played by an electric guitar, is more organized and less spontaneous. At the same time this probably made bachata so popular nowadays.
Some people consider Juan Luis Guerra, who was awarded Grammy Award in 1992 for his album called Bachata Rosa, to be the one who made the genre popular across the world. But he is also said to have absolutely nothing to do with bachata, because not a single song in that album was a proper bachata song.
The group that is currently holding sway over the hearts and minds of bachata lovers is Aventura from the Bronx. Their song Obsesión achieved a chart success in many countries to include USA, Italy, Sweden and Poland. Nevertheless the most popular and most listened to artists in the Dominican Republic are Antony Santos and Luis Vargas. Other musicians worth mentioning are: Raulin Rodriguez, Zacarias Ferreira, Frank Reyes, Monchy y Alexandra, Kat De Luna, Domenic Marte, Xtreme, Andy Andy, Elvis Martinez, Leonardo Paniagua, Los Toros Band,Joe Veras, El Vinny (Tu Melón).
