Even the Bee Gees have gotten a bachata spin. Prince Royce's bilingual take on the 1977 hit 'How Deep Is Your Love' has topped the Latin music charts this summer and proves bachata is no longer chasing the mainstream but reimagining the pop canon. I'm a scholar of Dominican culture and the senior researcher for the History of Dominican Music in the U.S. project at the City University of New York's Dominican Studies Institute. I see bachata as a revealing window into modern post-1960s Dominican history ' and one that spotlights the emotional truths and everyday experiences of poor and Black Dominicans in particular. Bachata was born in the Dominican countryside and later developed in the shantytowns of Santo Domingo, the capital. In most Latin American dictionaries, the word 'bachata' is loosely defined as 'revelry' or 'a spree.' The genre's first recording came in 1962, just over a year after Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, a brutal dictator who ruled the island for 31 years, was...
learn more
