History Of Bachata
Bachata is a form of music that emerged in the early 1960s as romantic guitar music, which is different from dancing guitar music. With time, Bachata’s rhythm was accelerated and a new dance step was initiated and thus, Bachata began to be classified as dance music.
Latin American Spanish dictionaries define Bachata as fun and merriment; however, in Dominican Republic, which is the place of its origin, Bachata refers to get-togethers that include food and music. Since these parties played guitars, the guitar-based music of this time became to be known as Bachata.
Bachata musicians took their inspiration from a number of music genres. Perhaps the most influential was the Cuban bolero; others include Mexican rancheros and corridos, Dominican merengue, Cuban son, guaracha and guajira, Colombian-Ecuadorian vals campesino and pasillo, and Puerto Rican plena and jibaro. Meregua, which is a fast-paced Dominican Republic dance music, also influenced Bachata.
Bachata has been through a series of phases since its evolution The Bachata style of music was played by rural musicians and this made it synonymous with low quality; the musicians and the listeners were lowly looked upon and began to be referred as Bachatero. With time, the reputation of Bachata got worse. The deteriorating conditions of the Bachateros further degraded Bachata’s reputation. Although the instruments used for Bachata remained the same, the tempo accelerated and the lyrics started including drinking and womanizing. Consequently, Bachata became associated with unacceptable social elements like alcohol, violence, sex and the like.
The Bachata music has incorporated several changes and refined itself in its 40-plus years. Jose Manuel Calderon has been credited with the recording of the first Bachata single - Borracho de amor. This song is quite romantic and is closer to bolero.The advent of the electric guitar played a major role in making Bachata easier to get to. Although bolero remains the most significant influence, the two genres are quite distinguishable. The various phases Bachata went through are listed below:
Bachata Bolero: This phase can be characterized by slow tempo, emotional style and romantic words.
Cabaret Bachata: Bachata musicians began to perform in cabarets and this led to its social rejection; this kind of music was essentially rough.
Sexual Double Entendre Bachata: During the 1980s, the Bachata music began to include songs and lyrics that implied sexual meanings. Consequently, the infamous Bachata became a further target of criticism.
Tecno Bachata: Certain liberal middle-class musicians showed interest in Bachata and manipulated it such that their songs reflected more of Bolero than Bachata. Juan Luis Guerra is a musician of this time who became increasingly popular in Latin America as well as the United States and Europe.
Frontier Bachata: Luis Vargas, Anthony Santos and Raulin Rodriguez conquered Bachata in the early 1990s; they included as much Merengue as Bachata in their collection.
Romantic Bachata: Anthony Santos pioneered this form of Bachata where there began to be a transformation into simpler and more romantic Bachata. Joe Veras was another popular Bachatero who increased Bachata’s pace towards romanticism.
Vallenato and Bachata: In the late 1990s, Bachata began to involve more middle-class musicians who attended school and studied other genres formally. Martires de León introduced the strategy of recording Colombian Vallenatos as Bachatas; Luis Vargas followed this style. This made Bachata acceptable to a wider audience.
The New York School: Aventura, a Dominican group, uses sound effects along with R&B influenced vocals which has attracted international audiences far and wide.
Bachata dance consists of certain simple steps that create a back and forth as well as a sideway motion. The dance starts with the right foot and similar steps are repeated with the left foot; Bachata can be distinguished by the distinctive and sensuous body movements. Salsa and Merengue are dance styles that have been known to be similar to Bachata but the three are quite different. Salsa is an informal dance style from the Caribbean which requires a partner. It incorporates different steps, patterns, timings, movement on dance floor, attitude, dress codes, preference of turns and moves etc. Merengue originates from the Dominican Republic in which partners hold each other in a closed position. In perfect Merengue, the hips of the two partners move in the same direction. Circular and sideway motions are possible; and there can be variation in choreography. The dance patterns of Salsa, Merengue and Bachata are alike but there are slight moves and patterns which differentiate the three.
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