A region is a given geographical locality with a historical tradition and language. It is questionable which Slovak regions, with the integration of countries into Europe, can be considered as independent cultural units. Slovakia has been divided differently regarding musical history in the 18th and 19th centuries, authentic folk music culture, and differently again as regards the modern conception of music’s cultural regions in the 20th century. Well-known regions for authentic folk culture are Podpoľanie, Horehronie, Liptov, Spiš, Gemer and Šariš, to which belong individual municipalities. In this conception, the regional centres of new music in the 20th century, as well as of modern popular music in minority genres, were Bratislava, Trnava, Nitra, Žilina, Banská Bystrica, Košice and Prešov, where there was a concentration of musical scholarship, listeners and historical tradition, as part of the cultural environment. Slovak musical historiography in the 20th century distinguished between central, eastern and western European culture, of which Slovakia is a part.
Regional culture includes equally amateur musicmaking and mature professional musicianship, which does not automatically move into the professional sphere because the artists do not have such an ambition. They do not wish to move in the highest national or international circles because of the negative effect on their personal and private life. They have the chance to progress from regional culture to professional and finally global music culture. They wish, however, to maintain quality and remain active at a regional or national level. High-quality professional music culture is connected with sufficient development and support from regional music culture… versus the global cultural media. From this it follows that the relationships between professional and amateur, global and regional is not antagonistic but polar and complementary. The question remains, where authentic culture has been lost, of folk music and whether popular cultural, for example in the shape of world music, is its continuation. The guarantee of the quality of global culture is not the existence of the unique in developing countries but active and high-quality fostering of amateur and regional culture. Present-day regional culture in Slovakia has several forms: the domestic musicmaking of children attending EASs; classical chamber music ensembles and choirs; concertgoers and passionate collectors of recorded music (especially listeners to opera and the relics of salon musicmaking, most often playing and singing serious music at the piano); the gospel music culture of children and youths; the club culture of students (jazz, alternative rock, folk, country and „chanson“); the active and passive reception of music (listening and playing); the garage culture of rockers; the amateur creation of music at home by means of software and synthesizers (house music); the productions of rappers and DJs; members of wind bands; folklore groups, and folk singers and musicians.
