The one-row accordion quickly became popular because of its greater volume of sound as compared to the fiddle. The instrument was also very suitable for playing the new runddans (reinlender, polka, vals, masurka) that became popular at that time.

The two-row accordion has the ability to play in two major keys, rather than the one key possible with the one-row accordion, and when this instrument arrived, the one-row was quickly displaced. The two-row accordion is often used to play traditional bygdedans slått tunes as well as runddans tunes.

The chromatic accordion first became popular in the cities before it was introduced in rural areas. Both two-row and chromatic accordion can be played either solo or, most commonly, together with other instruments.