Music – Diversity in Styles
“New Bachata artists have brought in influences of Mariachi, Argentine Tango and Hip Hop to the music.”
Just as Bachata – the dance – has evolved into many different styles, so has the music. One Bachata song can sound very different from an other song, with more traditional Dominican style Bachata and modern Bachata Pop sounding like music from opposite ends of the spectrum.
Unifying characteristics of all Bachata music is the instrumentation: the underlying Bolero rhythm and the syncopated guitarra line. Instruments in a typical Bachata music group are: lead guitar, rhythm guitar, electric bass guitar, bongos and güira.
New Bachata artists have brought in influences of Mariachi, Argentine Tango and Hip Hop to the music.
Examples of Modern Bachata artists:
* Romeo Santos – Former lead singer of Aventura, and known singularly as the “King of modern Bachata”.
* Aventura
* Prince Royce
* Toby Love
* Frank Reyes
* Daniel Santacruz
* Leslie Grace
* Henry Santos
* Monchy y Alexandra
* Elvis Martinez
* Carlos & Alejandra
* Xtreme
Examples of Classic Bachata artists:
* Edilio Paredes, One of bachata’s founding fathers.
* Eladio Romero Santos, a pioneer of bachata’s merengue de guitarra.
* Leonardo Paniagua, father of romantic bachata.
* José Manuel Calderón, the first artist to record a bachata.
* Antony Santos
* Luis Vargas
* Zacarías Ferreira
* Joan Soriano
* Juan Luis Guerra
Today Bachata music is still pre-dominantly created and performed in Central and South America. Its popularity in North America is growing, but the presence of the music and the dance in other parts of the world is almost non-existent. However, like Salsa, the recognition of legendary DR artist Juan Luis Guerra by the Latin Grammy Awards has brought Bachata into the limelight several times since the 1990’s.
Although Bachata is still lumped into the overall category of “Tropical” music, it is slowly defining itself as a musical genre unique in sound and energy, and as such, continues to evolve and gain widespread popularity.
Bachata artists that have won the Latin Grammy award for Best Tropical Song and Best Tropical Album:
* 1992 Juan Luis Guerra for the album “Bachata Rosa”
* 2008 Juan Luis Guerra for the album “La Llave de mi Corazon”
* 2009 Jose Feliciano for the album “Senor Bachata”
* 2010 Juan Luis Guerra for the song “Bachata en Fukuoka”
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