Despite the record's influence on numerous artists outside of jazz, "the mainstream jazz community still won't touch On the Corner with a barge pole", according to Tingen, "and whatever remains of jazz-rock continues to be too deeply in thrall of the pyrotechnics aspect of such 1970s bands as Mahavishnu Orchestra to take any notice of On the Corners repetitive funk, which was the antithesis of virtuosity." For its fusion of jazz harmonies with funk rhythms and rock instrumentation, On the Corner was regarded by both Davis biographer Jack Chambers and music essayist Simon Reynolds as exemplary of the trumpeter's jazz-rock music, and Mick Wall viewed it as a "jazz-rock cornerstone". According to NPR Music's Felix Contreras, On the Corner was one of 1972's "jazz-rock hybrids" that "blurred the lines between rock and jazz, if not outright combining them", along with I Sing the Body Electric by Weather Report and Santana's Caravanserai. Jazz scholar Paul Lopes cited the album as an example of jazz-funk, and ethnomusicologist Rob Bowman called it "a milestone" in the genre, while Barry Miles believed it was a jazz-funk album that also "qualifies as prog rock because no one at the time knew what to call it." Pat Thomas from Juxtapoz magazine wrote in retrospect that the record explored psychedelic funk. On the Corner was also viewed by Dave Segal from The Stranger as a "landmark fusion album" and by Vice journalist Jeff Andrews as one of jazz fusion's two greatest albums, the other being Davis' 1970 Bitches Brew record. While noting its inclusiveness and transcendence of a variety of musical genres, Howard Mandel regarded the album as both jazz and avant-garde music,Mandel, Howard. Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz. Routledge Books, 2010. p. 75. while Stubbs said "this riff beast is a hybrid of funk and rock but is more atavistic, more avant garde than anything conventionally dreamt of by either genre".
