When you get to the Dominican Republic it won’t take too long to figure out how much Dominicans love music. You start walking down the street and you will here some great sound systems. That is one thing that Dominicans know how definitely know how to do right, sounds systems. You can go through areas and it seems like all the bars and stores in the area are competing to see who is the loudest and it is a pretty good battle, and they are usually crystal clear. It shows what they love. Music

You will probably be hearing music the whole time you are here from about 10:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night. That being said you probably want to know what you will be listening to the whole time you are here. In the last entry on music I talked a little about the type of music they have here. Mostly Bachata and Merengue, but also such music as Reggaeton and salsa.

Bands

Another thing you should know about the Dominican Republic, When they like a band, they REALLY like a band. There are quite a few artists you can count on hearing regularly while you are here on the island such as Antony Santos, Luis Vargas and Frank Reyes. One that we are going to focus on today is one Dominicans are especially fond of Aventura. You can expect to hear this band at least once a day while you are here.

Aventura

Aventura is a Bachata band that formed in the Bronx, New York in 1996. Part of what makes this band so special to the Dominicans is it is an all-Dominican band. Well kind of an all-Dominican band. Only one member of the band, Henry Santos Jeter, was actually born in the Dominican Republic, the rest were of Dominican heritage. The import part though is that they all group listening to and loving Bachata music.

The band is made up of four members. Antony “Romeo” Santos, the Lead singer/composer. Lenny Santos, guitarist/producer. Henry Santos Jeter, singer/ composer. And Max “Mikie” Santos.

The band has had a number of hit singles including: “Obsesión”, “La Boda”, “Ella y Yo”, “Un Beso”, “Los Infieles”, “Mi Corazoncito”, “El Perdedor”, “Por un Segundo”, “All Up 2 You”, “Su Veneno”, and “Dile al Amor”. They have made five albums, Generation Next in 1999, We Broke the Rules in 2002, Love & hate in 2003, God’s Project in 2005 and The Last in 2009.

Influences

Although their music is name Bachata as a genre, it has also infused such styles as Hip Hop, R&B and reggaeton. One of their biggest influences was the popular Bachata Singer Antony Santos. No, this is not the same Antony Santos that is the Lead singer for Aventura, completely different people. They use both English and Spanish lyrics, so for those of you that don’t understand Spanish and are coning to the island, you can get some out the songs too.

Once again a Dominican’s love for the Band Aventura will come out in conversation. Many times if you have a conversation with a Dominican that is learning English, one of the first things they will ask you is what does this sentence mean. Now this pretty normal for a person learning a new language, but after I was in the country a while I started noticing that many of the things the ask me, were English lines of Aventura. So don’t be if you hear a song Aventura plays and the next day someone asks you what one of the English lines in the song means. It is also common for people to speak some English, but the only English they know is lines from an Aventura Song.

That gives you a little bit of what to expect on one the most popular bands in the Dominican Republic right now. If you are wanting to hear what they sound like you can go to Itunes or most other online music stores and you can sample some of their music.