Ballroom culture has been a part of underground gay and transgender America since the 1960s, with the subculture being first brought to mainstream attention with the 1991 film Paris Is Burning. At balls, drag and non-drag performers perform and compete before a panel of judges, often with a heavily stylised form of dancing based around modelling poses known as voguing. The music played at balls, as shown in the film, was and is mostly disco and house. Names like Kevin Aviance and Junior Vasquez would make ballroom-influenced house music during the 1990s, but it was only in the early 2000s that a particular sound known as Ballroom would emerge.
The genre is given a unified sound by widespread use of a sample from the Masters at Work track 'The Ha Dance'; this sample, known as the Ha or the Ha Crash, is the key component of many Ballroom tracks. The rhythms in Ballroom are hard-hitting, clipped, loud and highly prominent in the mix, with melody being less important - some producers also introduce elements of other contemporary genres such as baltimore club. Vocals are usually provided by ballroom MCs, known as commentators. The originator of the style is Vjuan Allure, and other notable producers include MikeQ and DJ Angel X. .
