Bachata

Long before Aventura, Monchy y Alejandra and Xtreme were tearing up the charts in the U.S. and Latin America, the Dominican-born Bachata was considered too ghetto – and too damn sad – to get radio play.

Often referred to as the “música de amargue” (the music of bitterness) old school Bachata told tragic stories of poverty, alcoholism and prostitution in the Dominican Republic. A natural progression of the bolero, merengue and salsa rhythms that took off in the late 1960s, Bachata was originally only available via pirated tapes of artists like Leonardo Paniagua and Luis Días – not unlike today's rap mix tapes.

It wasn't until the 1980's when artists like Luis Segura and Juan Luis Guerra began taking Bachata in a more romantic direction that the genre was granted both radio play and an aboveground avenue to commercial success. It wasn't long before its super sweet melodies, sweeping electric guitar arpeggios and bouncy güira and bongo rhythms made Bachata not just a national sensation, but an international hit.

In 1992, Guerra’s Bachata Rosa won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album, a clear sign that the genre had gone from “ashy to classy.” And as with other Latin styles, the accompanying dance also caught on, inspiring couples from Washington Heights to Buenos Aires to get close and, perhaps, a little dirty.

It also inspired Dominican Americans to leave their distinctly urban mark on this very traditional sound. With the backing of radio stations like New York City's La Kalle, urban Bachata, which adds R&B vocal stylings, bilingual lyrics and electronics to the mix, would eventually replace its antecedents.