Western swing is, first an foremost, a style of jazz which evoloved in the American Southwest among the region's popular Western string bands. Much of it is dance music with an up-tempo beat consisting of an eclectic combination of rural, cowboy, polka, and folk music, blended with a jazzy "swing", with a tip of the hat to New Orleans jazz and blues, and played by a hot string band often augmented with drums, saxophones, pianos and, notably, the steel guitar. Later incarnations have also included overtones of bebop. The similarities between Western Swing and Gypsy jazz are often noted.