Not really - but it seems that way.
To the untrained ear
the plinky-plonky Bachata all sounds the same so one could get the impression that there is one universal CD that everybody plays.
There are virtually as many illegal compilation CDs as there are songs. Rarely do I see original CDs of Dominican artists - they make their cash through live performances.
I love some Bachata - For me Frank Reyes is a hell of a singer and Zacharia Ferreir(SP?) is also kind of special. These are love songs mainly and keep to simple chord progressions and remain largely diatonic. Not very challenging, for the most part.
Meringue is everywhere and tends to be more upbeat. It ranges from the old to the new. Some of the newer electronic Meringue can be as leftfield as any techno from the 90's while the older stuff has some of the most amazing brass section work. I sometimes wonder if the sax players realise that what they do is virtually impossible. Dominican trumpet players regard playing all night sticking everything up the octave and tonguing as fast as hell as normal. These guys are so far ahead of European / North American players that I was truly shocked when I first heard them play. Subtle it is not but stunning it very much is.
There is obviously a tradition of Salsa in the D.R. Although the happy sounding Puerto Rican Salsistas get most of the airplay you hear a lot of the more moody Cuban Salsa (Sol?). My all time favourite Dominican musical artist is Salsista Raulin Rosendo - strangely you will very rarely find a guy selling CDs with his material in spite of the fact that everybody knows him and loves his music. Very odd - this dude is a national treasure.
One of the special things about Dominican listening tastes is that parents will largely listen to the same music as their kids. This cross generational taste helps keep music universal.
Dominican youth, as is their artistic duty, are still trying to **** their parents off with new music like Reggeaton and the more way out Meringue, but the beats are traditional yet fresh and you will find old guys tapping their foot to the new stuff.
In relation to your question, when a great song is released it will never go totally out of fashion. 'Princessa' by Frank Reyes, for example, was massive when I first came here. I still hear it a lot. I bet it will be popular years from now. So you tend to hear the classics over and over again possibly creating your impression of the single CD you mention.
Be warned - occasionally Bachata can overload the brain. On a 7 hour guagua journey earlier this year I was ready to maim after being constantly hammered by
loud Bachata.
This can be an issue because Dominicans have a habit of turning up whatever sound system until the point of distortion - then giving it an extra tweak just to make sure they are creating as much row as humanly possible. This is bloody annoying and can ruin otherwise great music.
Ironically, I have heard some trucks with excellent quality > 30k rigs on the back driving down the street at walking pace advertising parties.
As a guy who used to frequent the free party scene in the U.K. in the 90's, I can say that Dominicans have some truly stunning sound systems compared to what we used to put together. I wish we had these in the old rave days. I still have fond memories of running through muddy fields in Wales carrying hot amplifiers, avoiding the local constabulary.
Anyway, you asked an innocent question and got all this. I know,I should get out more.
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Dominican Music
