The Evolution of Bachata Music
Have you ever wondered why the Bachata music played at parties can sound so different? That’s because the genre has been around for 60 years and it has evolved quite a bit from its early days. It also has spawned some offshoots that continue to be enjoyed and called Bachata, but are not representative of the main evolution of the genre.
To help confused dancers understand, I’ve compiled research I’ve done from reading books such as “Bachata” by Deborah Pacini Hernandez, “Bachata and Dominican Identity” by Julie Sellers, “El Primer Bachatero del Mundo” by José Manuel Calderón, interviews with pioneers and witnesses to the evolution of the genre such as Mártires de León and the many others through Adam Taub’s work, as well as information received directly from mentors such as Edwin Ferreras.
The following graphic likely is an imperfect representation, as different sources quote different dates. That’s what happens when people are questioned decades later about what was happening. It’s okay. This isn’t meant to be a hard-edged timeline but rather a soft tool to help curious learners understand the development of this genre. I am open to editing it as I get more information from qualified resources.
Distribution: You may share this graphic via this blog link for context to explain to viewers what the pieces mean. No permission is granted to print, reproduce, or publish as your own. Love of Bachata, LLC reserves all rights.
About this graphic:
I tried to mention 2-3 big names for each genre in each decade as a rough guide to anchor ideas, though artists like Luis Segura have been active across nearly 60 years, thus their music is not always indicative of one time period. Likewise, Luis Vargas debuted in 1982 but is usually thought of most for his music in the 90s - and he continues to release music today.
Typical names of the time also appear at the bottom with the color sections helping show the change. It’s important to note there was no one name for Bachata for a long time. In an interview, Mártires de León said even in the 70s the album covers said “Bolero.”
The term “R&B influenced Bachata” is not an actual name for a sub-genre but rather my description to help viewers understand that this style of Bachata was developing alongside the original strain of the music. We call both Bachata without any hesitation or argument. However, I wanted to show this break from the mainstream because many dancers say that the work of Romeo Santos, Toby Love, etc. is the most evolved form of the music and that’s misleading. Music without a heavy R&B/pop influence continues to be successful in Dominican Republic and in the larger Latin music industry.
Tecno Bachata is a name, however, created by Luís Días to separate the Bachata music he was making from the mainstream Bachata, which he referred to as “Bachata Madre” (Mother Bachata, that has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?). However, you won’t find Juan Luís Guerra using this term to refer to his music. Again, calling it Bachata as well is fine (and the norm for the majority of listeners) but recognizing the break from the original is important.
Final Thoughts… for now
It’s important that dancers in the worldwide Latin dance scene recognize that they are not the majority consumer group of Bachata music. This music belongs to Dominicans and the entire worldwide Latin music market, which is much, much larger than the dance scene. The people who listen to this music as part of their culture (and not just as part of their hobby) are the real owners of the music and will continue to drive the evolution over the coming decades.
P.S. Don’t come for me for including remixes on here. Whether or not you recognize them as a valid form of Bachata music, it was important to me to show that they do not come from the original evolutionary strand of Bachata.
Sources:
”Bachata” by Deborah Pacini Hernandez
”La Evolución de la Guitarra en la Bachata” interview with Mártires de León
”El Primer Bachatero del Mundo” by José Manuel Calderón
Interview with Rafael Montilla by Adam Taub
Listen to the Evolution of Bachata for yourself
I made this mix to honor Bachata Day 2022, the 60th anniversary of the recording of the 1st song later deemed Bachata.
Disclaimer: Finding song release dates is extremely hard to do when iTunes didn’t even come out until 2001. Some artists have added correct release dates on their albums, but some songs/albums are marked as the day they were uploaded, even if they were released decades earlier. This mix is likely imperfect, but still useful.
This 2nd Mix is the follow-up to the 1st mix. This mix shows how diverse Bachata has become (and that Bachata from the 90s Golden Era did not die out when R&B-influenced Bachata began to rise in popularity). If I had used songs from the past 5 years, I could have shown an even greater variety than this, but using just 2 years’ worth of music was too tempting to pass up this time.