Bachata not to be confused with Baracha (a Female Drunk) is a genre of music that was created and formed in the Dominican Republic. It represents the mentality of the country very well. Their love of life, music and dancing. Although Bachata has been in the making for about 60 years it has only really become internationally accepted in the last 20 years.

Much of the international popularity and even the national popularity are do to one artist. Antony Santos. Bringing the genre of Bachata to being a music respected by the people was no easy task.

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Latin Award winning, Puerto Rican, Reggaeton recording artist Daddy Yankee will be performing at the Chavon April 3rd at 8pm. Ramón “Raymond” Luis Ayala Rodríguez or Daddy Yankee got into the underground rap movement in Puerto Rico while it was still in it’s early stages. Later this style of rap took on the name “Reggaeton”.

Starting with his first album to go international in 2002 Daddy Yankee has received numerous awards and nominations Daddy Yankees music has been well received in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Japan.

Tickets to his DR show will be available at Uepa Tickets, Hotel Casa De Campo and Tiendas Corripio. La Romana. General Tickets go for $1500 and $2000 (about $50 US Dollars) or $3500 (about $100 US Dollars)

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Singer, songwriter Ed Kowalczyk of the Band “Live” will be in Santo Domingo March 17th as he continues his Latin America tour. He will be at the Teatro La Fiesta, Hotel Jaragua at George Washington Ave. 367, Apto. Postal 769-2 Santo Domingo. The show starts at 8:30.

Kowalczyk is in the midst of a two year break with the band “Live”. You can sample his acoustic style of music at his website at http://edkowalczyk.com.

Following his show in Santo Domingo he will be at Leuven Belgin, Cologne Germany and finally at Hellendoorn Holland. In his previous tour Kowalczyk was playing solo, Starting with the Dominican Republic show he will have a full band including drums, bass, rhythm guitar and lead guitar.
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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. (more…)

I know one of the first things I like to now about an area is what type of music they listen to. To understand a Dominican’s taste in music you first to understand a Dominican’s mentality towards music.

There are few things in this world that Dominicans love more than music and dancing. Both music and dancing are heavily ingrained in the day-to-day life of a Dominican.
Unlike the US and many other countries, you are not going to find too much music that you can’t dance here.

I have several times tried explaining to different Dominicans that much of the music in the US is not meant for dancing, but they don’t seem to understand that thought. Right about at that point in the conversation, I get a look of pure confusion. They are thinking, Music without dancing? What’s the Point? With that being said pretty much all the music here has a heavy beat.

The music that you will probably hear the most of is Merengue and Bachata. Below is a brief description of each. (more…)