History of the Bachata

Let’s start a tour over a wonderful rythm so many bands are playing nowadays. Bachata music is a Dominican style, with Cuban and Caribbean influences. Just like any other typical Latin music, it was born and grew up among the poorest social classes, in this case Dominican Republic, from the year 1920 onwards.

The bachata music was known, from the beginning, as “música de amargue”, which menas “Music of the bitter sides”, being a mixture of rythmic bolero and son (both styles from Cuba). From the same country came the romantic bolero and the Mexican corridor, which lead the main influences on bachata. From the 1950 decade onwards, bachata would mix with a wide range of musical styles, giving birth to the “bachaterean sound” that would identify the island, just like the merengue.

Anyway, bachata was left to a “bad life” social places, which was something unfortunate the artists had to cope with for a long timer.Bars of cities like Santiago de los Caballeros (where a sax would sound for the first time in America!) aroused with new musicality that the higher classes pretended to ignore

And if we say “pretend" is because actually there was no way to ignore the movement and the success bachata produced on the mood of every town in Dominican Republic. The attractiveness of this Latin American music would gain spaces worldwide, but slowly .Time was passing by, the economy of the country strenghtened, tourism being widely developed, spreading the music that would later define the social classes of Republica Dominicana. Thus, this great country found another way of entering the actual world

Origins of bachata music

The word “Bachata” means “party” or “social meeting”. This is because in the beginning it was asociated with parties in any house in the gorgeous city of Santo Domingo. Over the terraces, gardens, and even on the streets, this kind of popular festivity was carried out with or without music, which gives a plus of interest to this matter. So bachata, understood in that way, it menas mainly a way of life instead of a music or a dance. People who try to find out how to dance bachata, will probably do better in traveling to Republica Dominicana and find out how the people live. That’s why actual bands have the mission of giving back to the people what in fact belonged to them in a first place. This is the main aim of important groups such as el Grupo Aventura, making of the the real Kings of Bachata.