It is called musica del amargue, which means music of bitterness – the Dominican blues. It is the music of the heart and of the soul. Bachata popularity has increased immensely in the past couple of years, drawing dancers all around the world to the floor, old and young alike, improvising on a stately minuet-style pattern of steps with a saucy flick of the hip as if to remind us we are in the Dominican Republic!!!

History of Bachata

The Dominican Republic shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Its northern shores are where Christopher Columbus first landed in the Americas and its capital Santo Domingo was the first city founded by the Spanish on the continent.

In Cibao, the northern agricultural region, the bachata developed from the traditional guitar basic romantic bolero, popular in the Spanish speaking countries, into its own syncopated bachata rhythm. Musical gatherings called bachata in rural bars, brothels, at cockfights and in a backyard enramadas (bowers), where singers flung bawdy couplets at each other, brought the music into disrepute, associating it with places of dissolute pleasure. The bachata was considered too rude and vulgar to enter into the musical mainstream that was dominated by merengue, but it survived to become the voice of poetic love and social comment in the Dominican Republic.

If you’ve lost your love, you listen to bachata in a bar until the tears flow. If you’re with your love, you dance bachata until your hips ache. It is called musica del amargue, which means music of bitterness – the Dominican blues – touchingly used by those who can’t read or write to communicate their feelings or sentimientos. It is the music of the heart and of the soul, the music of the poor and disadvantage, sung usually by men in a nasal voice ( voz anodada- meaning spoiled/ruined voice ) accompanied by a powerful tenor and baritone harmony-duo chorus.

The bachata’s thumping bass and flowing tightly plucked guitar arpeggios, reminiscent of central African guitar riffs, draw dancers on the floor, old and young alike, improvising on a stately minuet-style pattern of steps with a saucy flick of the hip as if to remind us we are in the Dominican Republic!!!