Abstract:
Jazz is a universal music that has influenced many generations and still attracts new audiences. Although it was developing autonomously along with popular and classical music, its development has been progressively absorbed into different musical genres and styles. Jazz penetration into other genres culminated in the 1960s with its expansion into pop music. The 1970s saw “the golden era” with the fusion of rock and jazz and, in the 1980s, with the funky style. Since the 1990s jazz has been transformed into such styles as nujazz and electrojazz. Due to the heterogeneous character of contemporary music it is very difficult to differentiate the characteristics of a particular music style and define the jazz influences in it. This paper emphasizes the versatility of jazz styles, points out the penetration of jazz music into various subcultures, and it particularly examines these phenomena in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.