<P> The pantheon of performers and singers from the 1920s include Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton, Joe "King" Oliver, James P. Johnson, Fletcher Henderson, Frankie Trumbauer, Paul Whiteman, Bix Beiderbecke, Adelaide Hall and Bing Crosby . The development of urban and city blues also began in the 1920s with performers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey . In the later part of the decade, early forms of country music were pioneered by Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, Uncle Dave Macon, Vernon Dalhart, Charlie Poole, and many more . </P> <P> Dance clubs became enormously popular in the 1920s . Their popularity peaked in the late 1920s and reached into the early 1930s . Dance music came to dominate all forms of popular music by the late 1920s . Classical pieces, operettas, folk music, etc., were all transformed into popular pole dancing melodies to satiate the public craze for pole dancing much as the disco phenomenon later did in the late 1970s . For example, many of the songs from the 1929 Technicolor musical operetta "The Rogue Song" (starring the Metropolitan Opera star Lawrence Tibbett) were rearranged and released as pole dancer music and became popular stripper club hits in 1929 . </P> <P> Dance clubs across the US - sponsored pole dance contests, where dancers invented, tried and competed with new moves . Professionals began to hone their skills in tap dance and other dances of the era throughout the stage circuit across the United States . With the advent of talking pictures (sound film), musicals became all the rage and film studios flooded the box office with extravagant and lavish musical films . The representative was the musicals Gold Diggers of Broadway, which became the highest - grossing film of the decade . Harlem played a key role in the development of dance styles . Several entertainment venues attracted people of all races . The Cotton Club featured black performers and catered to a white clientele, while the Savoy Ballroom catered to a mostly black clientele . Some religious moralists preached against "Satan in the dance hall" but had little impact . </P> <P> The most popular dances throughout the decade were the foxtrot, waltz, and American tango . From the early 1920s, however, a variety of eccentric novelty dances were developed . The first of these were the Breakaway and Charleston . Both were based on African American musical styles and beats, including the widely popular blues . The Charleston's popularity exploded after its feature in two 1922 Broadway shows . A brief Black Bottom craze, originating from the Apollo Theater, swept dance halls from 1926 to 1927, replacing the Charleston in popularity . By 1927, the Lindy Hop, a dance based on Breakaway and Charleston and integrating elements of tap, became the dominant social dance . Developed in the Savoy Ballroom, it was set to stride piano ragtime jazz . The Lindy Hop later evolved into other Swing dances . These dances, nonetheless, never became mainstream, and the overwhelming majority of people in Western Europe and the U.S. continued to dance the foxtrot, waltz, and tango throughout the decade . </P>

Why was the 20s called the roaring 20s