Bachata: C or D?

*shrugs* Got me.

(This will probably make FW lose all respect for me. I didn't say I love the stuff, but slow dancing to it late at night is kind of nice.)

You've nailed it. Exactly what it is.

Key performers:
(YES!) Monchy & Alexandra (biggest bachata duo EVAH!)
Flor De Tabaco (love 'em...another couple...they have a great sense of melodrama, and the girl's got a great voice...they fight in all their videos!)
Anthony Santos
***** Trio (yeah, the something or other Grand Trio...I forget their name 'cuz it's pretty generic and they're a brand new group...pretty young members for bachata...'bout my age...they're fuckin' brilliant though...2 guys and 1 girl...she sorta looks like J-Lo...their first video takes place in a 50's styled diner with a bunch o' Dominican greasers...it's awesome...the guitar player...WHOOF! the chiming arpeggios sound like friggin' Johnny Marr or King Sunny Ade or some shi...yea, it's nice)

''You take the beauty of vallenato lyrics and the sensuality of bachata as a dance and the genre takes on a whole new twist,'' Cabrera says.

I think that's a little more impressive than merely choking on one's own vomit.

I have frequently seen ads in the local Spanish-language papers for DC area appearances of Monchy & Alexandra. Now I know they're bachata. Thanks. I've spoken with salsa purists who detest bachata for its simplicity, but I kinda like the little I've heard.

Maybe ILM has more to say about bachata now that it's a global phenomenon. When I first moved to NYC, I lived in a heavily Dominican neighborhood and got used to hearing bachata whenever I walked into a store (or left my house, or sometimes I could even hear it without going outside), but after I moved to a different neighborhood it didn't happen as much. I'm feeling nostalgic about those days, probably because of the weather, and I'm listening to bachata mixes on youtube. I think this is the first time I've listened to bachata on purpose. It feels weirdly illicit. Anyway, this one is good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yw1n1dfN4A

bachata heads where u at!!!

ROYCE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeDr7D3PYF0

I like that one from this year, with Dominican diva Juliana, mostly known for singing merengue.

My bachata dancing is so weak (though still better than what some of the Hispanos here in Albuquerque can manage). I just do the basic North American side-to-side step and a couple turns. If I ever recover my health (which seems pretty unlikely), I'd like to work on it more (although I still have a lot of advancement to make in salsa as well). Actually I'm pretty confused about what authentic bachata is supposed to look like, since former Puerto Rican friend emphasized the full body contact, and she danced with a lot of Dominicans; but most of the videos I've seen of Dominican bachata look more like this (not sure where all these people are from):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtgRQvM28FA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvxaxe2FFOU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnZDJ68DhP8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEILAm-9FRo

A more Puerto Rican style of dancing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9Tkvn8_3Wc

Why couldn't I have started Latin dancing by my early 20s at least?

I like the album these come from, in general, though these are the only two bachata cuts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5aBL6Bff7c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgTsFMbxs1Q

I doubt this made much of a splash in the U.S., since it's Cuban, but the video was a big controversial deal in Cuba:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlgWQqPNc58

Not sure it's even strictly bachata, but it's very close--maybe even closer to what bachata was before it became more formulaic. (I don't actually like most of the roots bachata I've heard, sadly.) At the very least I can feel some sort of bachata undertow in it, and bachata comes from Cuban bolero one way or another, though the details are up for grab as always.

My bachata dancing is so weak (though still better than what some of the Hispanos here in Albuquerque can manage). I just do the basic North American side-to-side step and a couple turns. If I ever recover my health (which seems pretty unlikely), I'd like to work on it more (although I still have a lot of advancement to make in salsa as well).

Hope you feel healthier soon. Bachata is all over the DC Latin radio stations as I have noted on the Rolling Afro-Latino thread, but I haven't been out to anywhere lately where I'd do or see bachata dancing.

Bachata is the fucking worst. I hear it from my downstairs neighbor sometimes, and from dudes who deliver my food other times. The fucking worst. That awful smooth jazz guitar sound; the gooey post-R&B vocals; the pitter-pat rhythm...urgh. Hate, hate, hate.

BACHATA ALL DAYYYYYEEEEEEE

it has gotten increasingly pop-y n gross tho, both from the music and dance perspectives... i hear a lot of complaints about the "salsafication" of the dancing as it gets more popular and people tending to assume it's more about turns and spins (ala salsa) or about the up close/grindy style rather than intricate footwork and push-pull holds like the one with jorjet above (she's a popular dancer on the performance and workshop circuit). not really worried about what's the authentic version or not, i'm pretty sure both apply as long as you're on beat.

i'd think the up close style of bachata is to on1 salsa as the footwork-oriented version of bachata is to on2 salsa / mambo - the former styles being a little easier to pick up casually hanging around friends and family, the later styles requiring a bit more intent practice (and not as out and about because of it).

in terms of the music - as with salsa yeah i guess i don't hear much of anything new lately i like, and def not into the remixing of every soul/r&b track into a "bachata version".

...the back catalog of good stuff i can listen to forever tho, q trankilo tho

Don't know much about the genre other than a nostalgia attached to my time teaching middle school in the Bronx and chaperoning Aventura-heavy dances.

Always dug this one too, mostly because it was shot about a block from my apartment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzaxx2kEWPM

Astoria footnote, that storefront also appears in several King of Queens episodes. Kind of embarrassed I know that, though.

I'm certainly not offended by people hating bachata. I am kind of shocked mainstream bachata has remained in such a ridiculous straightjacket for so long. I like some rare exceptions, but overall the sound is just too much of the same thing, totally. I had hope the bachatón that was so popular a few years ago would have the effect of hardening up bachata in general, but I don't hear any such trend.

Astoria is cool. I haven't been there in ages (well, close to a couple decades anyway).

Like quiet-storm r'n'b or the sappiest salsa romantica, there will always be folks who love this mushy stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Pngb7MAas

Yeah, but bachata has much more of a fixed sound than either of those two. I mean, the damn drumn machines and the same basic guitar sound over and over is excessive. Even the sappiest salsa romantica or the quiet stormiest quiet storm R&B (from what I've heard of it anyway--not exactly something I seek out) is more varied than the dominant strain of bachata.

Perhaps someone will add a wrinkle to it at some point. I heard a Mexican group doing a a combination of bachata and trad Mexican sounds that was kinda interesting.

So I've been talking music with the El Salvadorian cleaning lady at work (her English is so much better than my Spanish). She likes bachata and reggaeton (she just saw Daddy Yankee Friday night). She was telling me about various approaches to dancing to bachata (while her English is better than my Spanish, I alas, did not grasp all of the nuances she was explaining).

i had a really good time at the romeo santos show on friday night

(he played three nights at the boston university hockey arena)

i love some of his songs, maybe i should give his album a listen

I saw Wisin & Yandel at MSG a while back and he showed up for 2-3 songs and the screaming went up an octave and doubled or tripled in volume the whole time he was onstage. The dude is a fucking star. (I still hate bachata, though.)

his new record is good! he even manages to lessen drake's annoying qualities

He's gonna be at Yankee Stadium for 2 nights in July. Dude is a big star. I liked him live when I saw him back in 2007 when he was still with Aventura-- bachata worked in person there for me in a way it largely hasn't on recordings.

the sound at the agganis was super-crisp, allowing for all the guitar parts and intricate percussion to really shine, and i wondered if that was part of the reason he played there instead of the larger td garden. curious to see how the sound will fall out at yankee stadium, although his starpower will probably not take a hit

When I saw him as part of Aventura it was at an 8,000 seat arena outside DC, and the guitar lines and percussion sounded better to me than bachata on a record. He played Madison Square Garden solo for 3 nights a couple of years ago, and he played it with Aventura as well.

let’s pretend this thread never got cut short:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWGJd26kUOY
Romeo Santos ft. Rosalía • El Pañuelo

Romeo Santos is on a reunion tour with his former group Aventura now. They sold out 2 18,000 seatCapital One arena dates in W. DC and a third one was added. I have seen next to none English language media coverage. Back in 2007 I did a freelance review of their gig in the DC area for the Washington Post. The Washington Post cut back on concert reviews at the end of 2008 and runs less freelancer ones now