Bachata is a form of music that came about more in the rural areas, kind of in the country side of the Dominican Republic; it was born in the early 1960s as romantic guitar music, which is different from dancing guitar music. It originated in the Dominican Republic and after a while Bachata’s rhythm grew and a new dance step came about, and Bachata began to be classified as dance music. The start of the electric guitar played a big role in making Bachata easier to play and more people wanted to listen to and it was also easier to dance to.
Spanish dictionaries said that Bachata is fun and merriment; however, in Dominican Republic, it is supposed to be in things like, get togethers that have food and music. Since these parties play guitars, the guitar type music of this time became to be known as Bachata.
Bachata musicians took their inspiration from a lot of different music genres. I think that the one that had the biggest impact was the Cuban bolero. The other ones were 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.
In the earlier years Bachata music was created using items commonly found in the backyard such as garbage cans, pots, pans, and fences, (etc.). This is one of the reasons why the Bachata is called what it is because in some parts of the Dominican Republic, bachata means “trash”.
The music was played by rural musicians and this made it the same as low quality. The musicians and the listeners were lowly looked upon and began to be called Bachateros. The reputation of Bachata got worse. Even though the instruments used for Bachata remained the same, the tempo got faster and the lyrics started including drinking and womanizing. So then Bachata became associated with rap and had bad social elements like alcohol,...