Music of the Dominican Republic
Choruses are often sung in a call and response form by two or three back-up singers, or more traditionally, by the musicians playing tambora or güira.
Beginning in the 1960s, dancing became a part of the singers' work with Johnny Ventura's Combo Show format, and is now a staple of many of the genre's biggest stars.
Dictator Rafael Trujillo, who seized the presidency of the Dominican Republic in 1930, helped merengue to become a national symbol of the island up until his assassination in 1961.
He was therefore resentful of these elite sophisticates and began promoting the Cibao-style merengue, forcing all social classes to participate in the low-class dance.
Piano and brass instruments were also added in merengue-oriented big bands, a trend towards upward mobility popularizing by Luis Alberti's group in Santiago de los Caballeros.
In the 1960s, a new group of artists (most famously Johnny Ventura) incorporated American R&B and rock and roll influences, along with Cuban salsa music.
The instrumentation changed, with accordion replaced with electric guitars or synthesizers, or occasionally sampled, and the saxophone's role totally redefined.
Ventura, for example, was so adulated that he became a massively popular and influential politician on his return from a time in the United States, and was seen as a national symbol.
At the same time, Juan Luis Guerra slowed down the merengue rhythm, and added more lyrical depth and entrenched social commentary.
Palos are related to Dominican folk Catholicism, which includes a pantheon of deities/saints (here termed "misterios") much like those found in the Afro-American syncretic religious traditions of Cuba, Brazil, Haiti, Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
The head of the drum is made of cowhide and it is attached to the log portion with hoops and pegs in the Eastern region, or with nails in the Southwest.
Historically, cofradías were established on principles similar to those of the Mediterranean guild-based societies and those founded by Africans that inhabited southern Spain.
[citation needed] Palo music is generally played at festivals honoring saints (velaciones) or during other religious events, such as funerals.
[3] Bachata is a guitar-based genre that originated in the Dominican countryside and developed into a music style in urban Santo Domingo's shantytowns in the 1960s.
[4] Early bachata drew influence from a wide range of Latin American genres, including Cuban bolero and son, Puerto Rican jíbaro music, Mexican corrido and ranchera, Colombian vals campesino and pasillo, and Dominican merengue.
In the 1970s and 1980s, bachata was dismissed by the Dominican elites due to its association with rural, working-class communities, its use of sexual innuendo, and the informal musical training of many performers.
Since then, there have been hundreds of Dominican rock bands, with the most successful being Toque Profundo, Cahobazul, Guaitiao, Tabu Tek, Al-Jadaqui Tribu del Sol, Joe Blandino, Edwin Amorfy, Vicente Garcia, Álex Ferreira, Top 40, TKR, Poket, La Siembra, La Reforma and others.
[citation needed] There are also several underground Metal concerts occurring occasionally mainly in the cities of Santo Domingo and Santiago, where teenagers and young adults usually not satisfied with the other genres express themselves.
[citation needed] Hip hop is a cultural movement developed in New York City in the 1970s primarily by African Americans and Afro-Latinos.
The four historic elements of hip hop are: MCing (rapping), DJing, urban inspired art/tagging (graffiti), and b-boying (or breakdancing).
All these elements have been carried on into the Dominican Republic since the mid 80s by young immigrants who returned to their mother land, usually from Puerto Rico, New York, Boston and Florida.
