I grew up listening to Dominican bachata and have always loved the older stuff. Marino Pérez, Blas Durán, Leonardo Paniagua, Teodoro Reyes, Tony Berroa, etc. This was the music my grandfather listened to, and I've always loved the musicians, stories, and culture behind it.

To me, bachata is drinking rum outside with family and friends, listening to some guy sing about how his wife left him, how all women are terrible, or how he's going to drink himself to death. It's the guitars, the storytelling, the humor, the bitterness, and the ridiculous lyrics. Maybe somebody dances, maybe not. The music is the main event.

But nowadays, more often than not, anything with the word "bachata" attached to it leads to some sensual dance class or two Russians grinding on each other in a studio in Warsaw lol. I just want to go to a concert, drink some rum, and hear some old Dominican guy sing about his terrible life decisions. Apparently that's a niche interest outside NYC.

I saw someone here the other day casually say they hated traditional Dominican bachata. Hated it? You're in a bachata subreddit and you hate Dominican bachata? That genuinely blew my mind, but also made me realize we're talking about two completely different things.

What's frustrating is that the people who created this music, and the culture it came from, have practically been pushed out of their own genre. Young Europeans have pretty much taken over what "bachata" means internationally, and they've succeeded. The original music is treated like some obscure subgenre while sensual dancing to pop remixes dominates everything.

It's surreal seeing the music your grandfather listened to become background music for somebody's sensual dance workshop.

Anyone else here primarily into the music itself? And seriously, where can I actually hear old-school Dominican bachata live outside NYC?

More and more, it feels like a Dominican cultural tradition has become internationally recognizable through a commercial dance scene with very little interest in the culture that created it.

I was at a bachata class last night in new venue. Big class. Very little space on floor. Follower move involved a body roll and then a neck roll to count of 4. Not explained or broken down very well. I did ask for it to be broken down but it did not work.Felt very deflated. Normally do not have problems with steps.

Left the club early. I feel better now. Sorry.

so I'm quite new to bachata (a few months). I started dancing a lot at socials by simply following the leads and learning as I go and now I take some classes too.

I'm wondering now how much body contact there is meant to be in closed positions? (I think my scene has mostly a blend of traditional amd sensual but I honestly don't know the differences well enough to tell) I'm personally not bothered by body contact so often end up veeery close, with right thigh/hip contact and upper body contact. Some more experienced leads have encouraged this level of contact, but then when I dance with less experienced leaders it feels weird to move in that close. Should I also not be able to read the leads movements in a close position with just upper body contact?

Any tips appreciated.

He seems to become popular recently. His 2026 song Yo no he llorado has almost 8 Mio streams on Spotify within 4 month, which is more than Barcelona (Husky, Ch. Luis) and Chacha (Jean&Alex, PintoPicasso) combined.

I think some of his songs are nice, but his voice always sounds like AI voice ;-)

I do like the brand new song "Santos" with El Chaval, whose voice doesnt sound AI at all, so with this contrast I like Yenddi's voice better than solo.

Santos https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/track/5SGQl8Dnyq07yO2Yxe8lb0

Slso teh remix version of yo no he llorado with Izaak sound a little better than the orignal. https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/track/2IGHTalMf6MssIm9hWCy4b what do you think? Opinions?