Romeo Santos & Prince Royce Don’t Hold Back: Why Hasn’t Bachata Taken Over the World Yet?

Romeo Santos and Prince Royce, the leading stars of bachata music, are back with a new collaborative album, “Better Late Than Never” — a “Watch the Throne” moment for the Dominican genre. Ahead of their joint tour next year, the duo sat down for an extended interview with Popcast, The New York Times pop culture show, to discuss their respective paths to selling out stadiums; their collaborations with Drake, Usher and more; and why they still feel like bachata hasn’t received its due amid the Latin music boom of the last decade. // Según los parámetros más convencionales, Romeo Santos y Prince Royce, los dos mayores representantes de la bachata dominicana, son superestrellas mundiales. Pese a las grandes colaboraciones, los álbumes exitosos y las giras con todas las entradas vendidas, las principales estrellas del género dominicano siguen pensando que no han recibido lo que se merecen. En Popcast, Santos y Royce hablaron de su larga admiración mutua, de lo que ha significado actualizar un estilo tradicional y querido para la era moderna y de las formas en que la bachata todavía no ha sido acogida a pesar de su éxito mundial. 2:00 How the collaboration came to be 7:45 Recording “Better Late Than Never” in “bootleg studios” 9:45 Staying hydrated 10:45 The early years of Aventura 24:24 The sound of bachata 29:38 Crossing over 36:05 “Bachata is underrated” 49:00 Politics and President Trump 59:50 The Popcast Lightning Round 01:10:04 Snack time! 01:16:33 Kissing fans Follow Jon:   / joncaramanica     / joncaramanica   Follow Joe:   / joecoscarelli     / joecoscarelli   Listen to every Popcast ever https://www.nytimes.com/popcast Every episode of Popcast (Deluxe) on YouTube https://tinyurl.com/PopcastDeluxe Popcast Discord! https://tinyurl.com/PopcastDiscord Popcast Facebook! https://tinyurl.com/PopcastFacebook Popcast t-shirts & stickers http://itsthepopcast.myshopify.com Subscribe: http://bit.ly/U8Ys7n More from The New York Times Video: http://nytimes.com/video