While reggaeton and dembow have been re-energized by promising new talent in the last few years, merengue hasn’t been as fortunate. But in the 80s, merengue ruled as king. The old days of synchronized merengue moves seem to be long gone, but thanks to Dime KLK, we have another reason to relive them. In their latest videos, they had young Dominicans weigh in on 80s merengue.
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Some easily recognize it as the music their parents played as they cleaned the house, and others couldn’t keep themselves from dancing along. In between bursts of gasps and laughter, one Dominican woman said, “Ay Dios mío, ¿que es esto?” as Los Kenton pop up on the screen in their all-white getups. While their style was completely in vogue back then, trios/quartets/and so on dressed in matching fedoras are almost a rarity now.
At the end of the video, the Dominicans reflect on what’s happened to the island’s once popular tune since the 80s. Some point the finger at younger generations preferring to listen to dembow and not supporting merengue, but one woman sums it up as, “It’s our fault.” Unlike other videos that have young people reacting to stuff from the past, these young Dominicans said they prefer old-school merengue, which is kind of refreshing but also shows how the genre has fallen off.
Check out the video above, and see what may have very well have inspired Bruno Mars’ whole lewk.
[H/T Remolacha]