Dance music
In the Baroque period many composers started to write pieces of music which were based on dance rhythms.  Composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach wrote suites which were collections of dance movements.  The most popular dances in a suite were: allemande, courante, sarabande, minuet and gigue.  Even when not writing dance movements, a lot of Baroque music is based on dance rhythms, for example: the grand opening chorus of Bach’s St Matthew Passion is based on the rhythm of a sicilienne.