During the 1960s, two dominant strains of jazz-pop developed. The first was a mellow, smooth, almost easy-listening strain of jazzy pop epitomised by artists such asthe Latin-tinged Herb Alpert. The other sprang up as a sort of middle ground between the grooving, funky soul-jazz that became popular during the decade and instrumental soul artists like Junior Walker and the Stax/Volt combos (Booker T. & the MG's, the Mar-Keys, the Bar-Kays). In this vein, the Ramsey Lewis Trio scored a pop smash in 1965 with The In Crowd. As fusion introduced rock and funk rhythms into the vocabularies of more and more jazz artists, jazz-pop began to mirror the shifting musical landscape, in the process reaching a wider audience than ever before.

Artists Bob James and George Benson became successful in the mid- to late 1970s, with the balance between pop, jazz, and R&B influences varying according to the individual. Purists and many critics decried the slick polish and simplicity of the new breed of jazz-pop, plus what they viewed as commercial pandering and blandly pleasant predictability.

During the 1980s, their concerns came to be symbolised by the wildly popular soprano saxophonist Kenny G, who sold millions of albums and proved that instrumental jazz-pop could cross over to pop and adult contemporary audiences. During the 1990s, Kenny G's success helped give rise to the smooth jazz radio format, which steered jazz-pop in a similarly polished, pleasantly soothing direction.