Music in Azerbaijan has been developing since 3-5 millenniums B.C. At that time people of the Stone Age used to play musical instrument called "gaval-dash" (stone-tambourine) in place Gobustan (not far from Baku). From those times a lot of different national musical instruments have been played. The most popular national musical instruments nowadays are tar (a stringed musical instrument played by plucking), kemancha (a string musical instrument played with a bow), balaban (a woodwind instrument), def (a percussion instrument), saz (a string instrument played by plucking with a plectrum) and other types. In music an ancient tradition was carried into modern times by ashugs, poet-singers who presented ancient songs or verses or improvised new ones, accompanied by a stringed instrument called the kobuz.

Another early musical form was the mugam, a composition of alternating vocal and instrumental segments most strongly associated with the ancient town of Shusha in Nagorno-Karabakh. At the close of the eighteenth and at the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, famous Shusha singers Shakhsanam oglu Yusif, Mirza Husryn Gasanja, Mirza Ismail widely popularized classic mugams and laid the foundation of the Khanende - singer's art, when the singer performs mugams with perfect mastery.

There are 7 classical forms of mugam. These are: Rast, Shur, Seygah, Chaargah, Bayati - Shiraz, Shushter, Humayun. At the same time, each of these mugams has a fixed number of parts. And only singers, who could perform all parts of all of the mugams correctly, deserved the name Khanende.

An independent area of the Azerbaijan musical folklore is a dancing music distinguished by its diversity and relief of rhythmic figures.
Azerbaijan music could be also divided into two categories: Asian influence music and European influence music. Mugham, ashugs music and folk dancing music are formed under Asian influence. Another baranch of Azeri music that includes Azeri opera and ballet is formed under European influence.

Azeri opera and ballet started to develop in the XIX century. The great Azeri composer Uzeir Hajibeyov was the founder of first Azeri ballet and opera. Famous Azeri opera Leyli and Majnun, written by Uzeir Hajibeyov in 1907 was the first opera written not only in Azerbaijan but also in the East. Leyli and Majnun is a tragic love story set in the XII century and written by great Azeri poet Nizami. The following works of Uzeir Hajibeyov such as Husband and Wife opera (1909), O Olmasin, Bu Olsun (If Not That One, This One) music comedy (1911), Shah Abbas and Khurshid Banu opera (1912), Arshin Mal Alan (The Cloth Peddlar) music comedy (1913) and Keroglu (Son of a Blind Man) opera (1937). All his works have a great success and are often performed in the Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Another great Azeri composer is Gara Garayev (1918-1982). He wrote more than 110 pieces, including ballets, operas, symphonic and chamber pieces, piano solos, cantatas, songs and marches. The most famous among them are opera "Vatan" (Motherland) (1945), ballet Seven Beauties (1952), ballet Thundered Path (1957), opera Nargiz (1957).

Fikret Amirov (1922-1984) was another famous Azeri composer, who left a profound imprint on Azerbaijan's music. Amirov composed symphonic music, vocal chamber music and piano music mainly. In his works he uses a lyric tone as basis and transposes elements of the tradition of Azerbaijan in his music. The most famous Amirov's works are "Robbers of the Heart", musical comedy (1944), "Happy News", musical comedy (1946), "The Seagull", opera (1948), "Shur", symphonic mugam for orchestra (1948), "Syevil", opera (1953), Arabian Nights (1001 nights), ballet, (1979).

Western influence on Azerbaijan music reflects not only in development of opera and ballet but also in the development of jazz music. The most famous Azeri jazzman is Vagif Mustafazade (1940-1979). He was the first jazzman in the world that created the style of "jazz-mugam", a blend of jazz and Azeri folk music. His works had a great success not only in Azerbaijan but also around the world. Vagif Mustafa Zadeh won first prize at the 8th International Music Festival in Monaco in 1978. He composed a great number of jazz works mixing different syles of jazz with various elements of Azeri folk music.