Lol, why me?? J/K....Well, I must say that I agree very much with what has been said by cibaeño75, manhattanite, ny4life, and kokoloco in regards to what has unfortunately happened with our Merengue music, especially outside of DR. I think Manhattanite made an excellent (and humorous) point regarding how the lowest quality always floats to the top like "mojon" lol...It is very true. Silvio Mora, for example started out as a quality merenguero, but then started playing the lower quality merengue which attracted the teenage crowd, which has contributed to this disaster even more, and I know that he wasn't the first to do this. I think Cibaeño75 and Kokoloco started to touch on an underlying issue here regarding publicity and poor management also affecting the dissemination of the quality performers of the Merengue genre such as Sergio Vargas, Fernando Villalona, Eddy Herrera, Alex Bueno, Milly Quezada, Miriam Cruz, El Jeffrey, Ramon Orlando, Juan Luis Guerra, etc. With the exception of JLG, if all the quality merengueros had the publicity, management, and support that reggaetoneros currently have, it'd be a completely different story. Also, as much as I love my Bachata music, I think also that many Dominican artists, including several former merengueros (El Torito, Alex Bueno, Andy Andy), have devoted to much to only singing Bachata. I mean don't get me wrong, it is logical to go "where the money is", but I think this action has also affected the Merengue genre greatly. It upsets me very much to hear that the Merengue genre has been eliminated from the Latin Grammys, but then again I rarely every watch these shows because I have sensed a certain form of discrimination against Dominican artists in addition to the manipulation of the Latin music market here in the States. The "payola" issue that Pilar mentioned also is true (damn, it's so many things! lol), but ultimately I believe the publicity, management, and discrimination situations ultimately carry more weight at the moment. I guess the only way you'll hear quality merengue nowadays is if 1) You follow the genre and find out who the quality merengueros are, 2) You have Dominican tv channels here in the states that let you see who's who in the merengue genre right now, or 3) You listen to DR radio stations on the Internet, lol

manhattanite hit the nail on the head. because the music business is strictly business, artistry does not sell well. if it did, jazz musicians would be rich. yet the guys who make the real money are people like 50 cent. the record producers know this, and cater to the lowest, most basic of tastes. once they find a formula which sells, they reproduce it over and over. artistry goes out the window, in comes monotony, repetitiveness, and lack of creativity. i love the rhythym of Amalfis, but you heard one of his songs, you´ve heard them all. what the heck is going to happen to a musical style when a guy sings ¨la vaca, la vaca, la misma vaca, and it becomes a hit? but this is not unique to the DR. the entire music scene has degraded. reggaeton arose out of the Jamaican poco mania ,one beat style of reggae, which is all the rage today in the caribbean. to think that at one point in time they were listening to the work of one of the masters of all time, Bob Marley!

"but this is not unique to the DR. the entire music scene has degraded."

Indeed. Hip-hop is definitely a shadow of what it once was, I haven't heard a good new salsa in ages and the list goes on and on.

How about "Conteo" del caballero de la salza.... that song is a hit in Latin America

I don't think I've heard it...send me a link.

cibaeno, a very sagacious commentary on the state of salsa. at one time the home of ferocious music from the likes of Fania, El Gran Combo, Bobby Valentin, Celia, Tito Puente and, El Malo Willie Colon from the Bronx, we are now treated to monotonous croonings from the likes of Marc Antony. just like other Latin stylings were corrupted by the dismal wailing of ¨artists¨ such as Gloria Estefan, who should have been confined to making music for elevators, if allowed at all!

Here is the link cibaeño

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=30762014

This is the hottest song right now

I've heard the song before but thanx for the link...and it's not that new!LOL

Salsa has died down to the point where you can count the number of new salsa songs being played.
Colombians were holding it down for a bit when PR was under the onslaught of Reggaeton.
One thing I would like to thank Reggaeton for, and that is they stopped all the prolific LatinAmerican boyband/wanna be fake rockers! Especially from Mexico. This made way for more Urban Latino style music.

Everyone has always noticed that the songs that win the awards are not what the people buy/listen to (I'm talking about the East Coast).
I don't want to generalize and blame an entire nation, but Latinos here chafe under what seems like the Mexican controlled hegemony.