Though the musical tastes of the neighborhood are as diverse as the population, the dominant ethnic genres of Washington Heights are without a doubt merengue and bachata, two types of dance music brought from the Dominican Republic.

Merengue is the Dominican national dance. There are a number of step variations, but it is characterized by short movements of the feet.The style is believed to have evolved from one of two historical sources. One theory is that the steps were first “danced” by slaves when they marched through plantation, their feet chained together, to a drumbeat. Another theory says that when a war general returned home with a limp, the welcoming peasants imitated his step in their dancing.

Bachata is a form of music that was rather new, becoming a distinct genre only in the 1960. It varies from the guitar music of Latin American and the Caribbean, which was played to the beat of maracas, clavas, bongo drums, or guitars. Bachata is unique in the Dominican Republic as romance music, but in Washington Heights it can alter with modern quickening beats and turned into dance music.