Though it's now more popularized in a competitive or televised setting, ballroom dancing was once popular in dance halls. Engulfing a host of styles, ballroom includes everything from salsa and merengue to swing and two-step dances. Ballroom dance halls are more of a novelty than a popular venue in the modern era. More specific styles claim especially devoted venues, such as salsa clubs and discotheques.
Encompassing a wide variety of blues, R&B, and jazz varieties, dance halls that feature big bands, reminiscent of the 1940s in American culture, are rare in the modern era, but are still a popular style of music. Cabarets and speakeasies were popularized in urban parts of the United States in the earlier parts of the 20th Century, and jazz and blues style music was the genre of choice in these underground dance halls.
Line dancing is particularly popular in Western culture with devotees of country and honky-tonk music. These styles of music are found primarily in dance halls in the southern and western parts of the country. Well-known country-western dance styles include the Texas shuffle and the two-step. The music most commonly heard at these types of establishments is traditional country, honky-tonk, bluegrass and folk.
Since becoming popular in the late 1970s in Central America, dancehall music is a sub-genre of the reggae movement. It is most common in Jamaican settings and has popularized many dances used in modern hip hop. It has evolved in the past few decades to mimic electronic music more heavily. In addition, the social influences of the dance hall music craze has caused international groups to stir to action questioning dance hall artists' lyrics.