The engine that drove pop styles has always been dancing. From the waltz craze of the 1890s, through the ragtime mania of the 1910s to the knee-knocking Charleston of the 1920s jazz age, dance has dictated the popularity of the music. In the 1930s the dance halls were re-invigorated by Latin American steps such as the tango and rhumba while black-American athletic jive dancing became the perfect partner to to the swinging riffs of the big bands. Bobby soxers and hepcat kids proved that enjoying popular music wasn’t a passive activity confined to couches and parlors.