Azerbaijanis credit Uzeyir Hajibeyov as the "Father of Composed Classical Music in Azerbaijan", since he established the direction that defines contemporary music today.

Axar.az reports that Hajibeyov gave Azerbaijanis an enormous national and cultural legacy which epitomises and defines much of their national identity today - an enormously rich synthesis of East and West, and an unmistakable blend of the traditional and modern as well.

Hajibeyov did this primarily in two ways: first, by insisting that traditional modal music could, and should, be transcribed and written down as notes (instead of simply being performed as improvisation); and secondly, by fusing Eastern traditional elements (melodies, modes and the use of instruments like the tar, saz, kamancha and zurna) with Western genres such as opera, symphonic orchestra, cantatas, chamber and choral music. What emerged was a unique synthesis of sound that can be recognized as distinctly Azerbaijani.

Since he was active in the formation of the independent but short-lived (1918-1920), Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Hajibeyov was invited to write the country's first National Hymn. When the Soviets came to power in Azerbaijan, they asked him to write another anthem for the Azerbaijan Socialist Republic (1945). The independent Republic of Azerbaijan officially readopted Hajibeyov's first hymn in 1991.

Hajibeyov was the first composer in the entire Soviet Union to be named "People's Artist of the USSR" (1941). He also received the coveted Lenin Award (1938) and two Stalin Awards (1941 and 1946). He was a Founding Member of the Academy of Sciences (1945) and among its first Academicians. He served as Deputy of the All-Soviet Parliament (the late 1940s).