Do you enjoy listening to genres of music that contain a fusion of musical influences from both Latino and American cultures? If you like to listen to musical genres fitting this above criterion, I would recommend taking the time to listen to a Puerto Rican-Dominican-American bachata band called Aventura, since this band created songs that are fused with both Caribbean Latino and American culture musical influences.
The musical group Aventura is a very important modern bachata band to listen to if you want to learn more about a traditional Latino-Caribbean music genre called bachata, which is a style of music that is very popular and originated in the Dominican Republic. However, Aventura has also added some musical influences of their own style into their version of modern bachata. They have incorporated the popular music styles of mainstream American music culture; pop and R & B into many of their songs to make their bachata music sound more modern and unique.
Therefore, Aventura is a little bit different than most bachata bands who play traditional bachata music. Although Aventura chose to do this for a reason since they wanted their music to have a mixture of cultural and musical influences that they grew up listening to from their cultural background (Puerto Rican and Dominican) and their country of origin (United States).
In general, bachata music is very popular to listen to in the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean Countries, such as Puerto Rico and Cuba. The tropical Latino Caribbean genre uses several traditional and modern instruments like the guitar, bongos, maracas and güira to create a distinct musical flare. The musical genre tends to have interpersonal themes such as love and dealing with the heartbreak that it can cause. Many of the traditional bachata songs also reflect upon the nostalgia many of the immigrants of the Domincican Republic felt about when moving from their rural countryside towns into the crowded urban centers of the city.
This was especially the case between the decade of 1980 to 1990, when many Dominicans and other citizens from neighboring Latino Caribbean countries moved into the United States. Due to this period of migration the popularity of traditional bachata music rose in several urban centers of the United States. Thus the influence traditional bachata had in that time period influenced the youth who lived in a blending of their family's culture and their new homeland. These were the factors that made the bachata band Aventura to form as a group.
Aventura was formed in a New York neighborhood called "The Bronx" in 1994 with members: Anthony "Romeo" Santos, Lenny Santos, Max Santos and Henry Santos. Although their first album was not released until five years later after they formed in 1999, they had built a large local fan base. Their main reason for forming their group was because they all grew up listening to traditional bachata music along with the current mainstream American music they heard on the radio. They felt the need to highlight the similar issues brought up in the traditional musical genre that their families experienced by immigrating to the urban parts of the United States after coming from the rural towns of the Dominican Republic. So by forming a band they achieved this goal.
The majority of the time Aventura sings their songs in the Spanish language. This is due to it being the main language used in the majority of traditional bachata songs. But sometimes they will use English or Spanglish in their songs. This is because all the band members grew up in the United States speaking both English and Spanish. Plus over the years they even gained some English speaking fans. So they wanted to reflect the diversity of their fan base by producing music for fans using both languages. In addition, the band uses authentic bachata instruments but they also add in computer synthesizers for a modern sound. Although the band broke up in 2011 many of their songs are still well-known due to members having solo careers.
In conclusion, the band Aventura increased the popularity of modern bachata in the United States and the rest of the world by using musical influences of both cultures within their songs. Aventura's music is a mixture of culture of both countries and musical influences from many musical styles found in the United States and Latino countries of the Caribbean. So if you want to broaden your musical perspective and listen to a bachata band definitely listen to a song or two of Aventura.
Additional reading:
http://genero-bachata.blogspot.com/2010/05/instrumentos.html
http://www.iasorecords.com/es/artists/aventura
http://www.elgrupoaventura.net/
