Palm muting is a common device used in all styles of music. Those chugging distorted metal riffs that I'm sure you have all heard at one stage, sound the way they do partly because of the palm muting technique.
In funk bands you will often hear one of the guitar players playing catchy little riffs with a choppy percussive feel. This is palm muting in action again.
From Jazz to Classical you will also see this technique in action. So experiment with it in your playing. You will find that some strings require a much lighter touch than others or you could end up muting them into silence.
As a general rule. The lighter strings ( the high G B and E string's ) should be muted with a much lighter touch.