Bachata is a genre of music that originated in the Dominican Republic in the 20th century. It contains elements of European (mainly Spanish music), indigenous Taino and African musical elements, representing the cultural diversity of the Dominican population.
The first recorded compositions of bachata was done by José Manuel Calderón in 1962 ("Borracho de amor") 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"), until the mood-neutral term bachata became popular. The form of dance, bachata, also developed with the music.
Bachata arose in the poor and working class areas of the country. During the 1960s and early 1970s, while bachata was known as amargue music, it was seen as music of the lower class by middle-upper-class Dominicans. The genre's popularity rose in the 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.
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 middle-upperclass Dominican society 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. These new modern styles of bachata became an international phenomenon, and today bachata is one of the most popular styles of Latin music.
Instrumentations
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.
History
1950s: Trujillo's dictatorship and the origins of bachata music
Although the first official bachata song was released in 1962, bachata music had already existed informally in el campo (here refers to the rural areas of the country), the rural or countryside parts of the Dominican Republic where it originated. Prior to the 1960's, at the time of Trujillo's dictatorship accompanied by censorship, the word bachata meant an impromptu party in el campo, characterized by its melancholy and bittersweet lyrics, singing, and dancing. Informal bachateros at the time were majority poor, working class people and so was their audience. Given the initial demographics of bachata music’s audience and musicians, Trujillo harbored negative emotions towards bachata music and stigmatized it. As a result, bachata became synonymous with poverty, delinquency, lack of education, and prostitution to the middle and upper-class Dominican society. Bachata was also referred to as música cachivache, or music of little worth, and música de guardia, or music for low ranking military and police men. Still, Bachata music prevailed through the 50s as poor, working class people played bachata music in bars and brothels. Bachateros also participated in the informal music sector where they paid studios to record songs on records or vinyls and sold them to people and establishments for low prices. Establishments like colmados in el campo bought popular bachata recordings and played them on jukeboxes for their customers to listen to while shopping.
1960s: Trujillo's death and the spread of bachata music
The 1960's signal the immense spread of bachata music—the decade saw the birth of the Dominican music industry and of the bachata music which would dominate it.