Merengue

Merengue is a fast, two-step dance from the Dominican Republic that emerged around the early 20th century and has European, African, indigenous and Creole roots. Through the decades to come, merengue evolved from its folkloric, rural origins to more modernized forms, and became the national symbol by the late 1930s, as well as one of the most popular Latin dance styles.

Derived from the European contredanse and West African forms, Dominican merengue began in the rural areas of the Cibao Valley as a complex (yet humble) dance style called merengue típico or perico ripiao, combining the Spanish guitar with the Congolese marímbula (a box lamellophone found in Cuba and elsewhere in the Caribbean), and included a call-and-response vocal section.

Eventually, the guitar was replaced by the German-derived button accordion (brought to several countries in the Americas), and was added to an instrumentation of a two-headed drum called the tambora (of West African origins) and a metal scraper called the güira. The acoustic bass (and, later, the electric bass) eventually replaced the marímbula, and recordings of this style will sometimes feature a saxophone (such as the music of accordionists Francisco Ulloa and Fefita La Grande).

Modernized merengue developed during the 1930s with orchestral versions played in the dancehalls for the social elite as well as for the middle class. The rural instrumentation was changed in favor of a more "generic" Latin band, with the piano replacing the accordion, and larger horn sections along with the staple percussion and bass. Dictator Rafael Trujillo established this modern orquesta merengue (or merengue de salón) as the Dominican national symbol, and by the 1960s artists such as Johnny Ventura and Wilfrido Vargas began to develop a highly stylized version with flashy choreography and a simplified beat.

In the 1980s and 90s, Juan Luis Guerra began to incorporate more modern sounding arrangements and socially relevant themes into his merengues, and explored the pop and jazz influences as well as earlier merengue típico styles into his new version.
—Rebeca Mauleon