February Playlist Highlights

Song		Artist	Category	Origin
Un Monton de Estrallas		Polo Montañez	Salsa	Cuba
El Maraquero		Soneros All Stars	Salsa	Cuba
Identidad		Azucar Negra	Salsa	Cuba
El Mas Rico Beso		Guayacán Orquesta	Salsa	Colombia
En Mi Puertorro		Andy Montañez y Julio Voltio	Salsa	Puerto Rico
Indestructible		Ray Barretto	Salsa	USA
Vicio Del Pecado		RKM and Ken-Y	Bachata	Dominican Republic
Entre Tu Amor Y Mi Dolor		Yoskar Sarante	Bachata	Dominican Republic
Ya No Toy Pà Eso		Ilegales	Merengue Electronico (MPop)	Dominican Republic
Bailando Por El Mundo		Juan Magan ft Pitbull y El Cata	Merengue Electronico (MPop)	Spain / USA
Mueve la Cadera		Proyecto Uno, Reel-to-Real	Meren-rap (MPop)	Dominican Republic / USA

What is MPop?

Originating in rural areas of the Dominican Republic, merengue (which literally translates into whipped eggs or meringue) is a musical style that dates back to the late 1800’s.  In its most basic form, it is made from a collection of 4 instruments; a tambora drum, güira, and marimba box bass for rhythm and either a guitar, banjo or button accordion for the melody.  This simple country music gained popularity over the years and was raised to a level of national importance when it was made the official dance music of the Dominican Republic by General Rafael Trujillo, president/dictator from 1930 to 1961.  Merengue music is built on a 2/4 rhythm, which makes it very easy to dance to.  General Trujillo apparently had two left feet so this easily identifiable beat worked well with his limited dancing abilities.  It’s worth repeating that this simple rhythm is very easy to hear even for people new to Latin dance.  If you want your non-dance friends to enjoy themselves at a Latin club, introduce them to merengue.

Is the traditional form of merengue still around today?  Probably, and while I suspect that you would find it alive and well in many rural areas of the Dominican Republic, when it comes to merengue in an urban setting, the music has evolved.  Artists like Juan Luis Guerra, Elvis Crespo and Olga Tañón have modernized the genre making it accessible to a wider audience.  Not only has merengue been modernized but it has also been “popularized” and this is where the term MPop comes in.

MPop is a catch phrase I use to describe merengue influenced popular music.  This would include such fusions as merengueton, meren-rap, techno-rengue, and merengue electronico.  The fusing of genres happens with many popular musical styles but seems to be especially common with merengue.  The merengue 2/4 rhythm lends itself so well to being blended.  Take the song La Despedida by reggaeton artist Daddy Yankee as an example.  The song has elements of mainstream reggaeton but at its core is a basic 2/4 merengue rhythm.  That rhythm makes the song easy to listen to and easy to dance to and I don’t mean that as a criticism.  I’m a fan of catchy, danceable MPop in general and La Despedida is a great example of it.

I’ve included a few more MPop examples in this month’s play list, one of which dates back to the late 90’s.  It’s juicy meren-rap by the great House/Reggae band, Reel to Real and meren-rap group Projecto Uno.  Unfortunately, Reel to Real isn’t around anymore but Projecto Uno’s Magic Juan is.  You can find one of his MPop songs in January’s blog post.

Comments, questions or music requests?  Send me an email.

Hasta la próxima