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The earliest bachata was originally developed in the Dominican Republic around the early part of the 20th century, the genre mixed the pan-Latin American style called bolero with more African elements, combined with other traditional Latin-Caribbean rhythms. During much of its history, Bachata music was denigrated by the Dominican elite and associated with rural backwardness and delinquency. As recently as the 1980s, bachata was considered too vulgar, crude and musically rustic to enter mainstream music. In the 1990s, however, bachata's instrumentation changed from acoustic guitar to electric steel string. The new electric bachata (New York style) would soon become an international phenomenon, and today bachata is as popular as other Afro Latino music and dance like salsaand merengue in many Latin American dance halls. Bachata was played by campesinos, or peasants, who would play it whenever the village would get together for a party.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachata_(music)