The Slovak Republic (short for Slovakia) is a state in Central Europe. It has a population of over 5 million and an areas of about 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi.) Slovakia is a landlocked country bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is the capital Bratislava, and the largest is Kosice. The end of the Communist rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989, during the peaceful Velvet Revolution, was followed once again by the country's dissolution, this time into two successor states. In 1992, Slovakia declared itself a sovereign state.
Popular music began to replace folk music in the 1950s, when Slovakia was still part of Czechoslovakia; American jazz, R&B, and rock and roll were popular, alongside waltzes, polkas, and czardas, among other folk forms.
