Art music

Art music is a term which includes classical music, and various kinds of serious modern music. Other terms for it are serious music, and legitimate music.
The need for such terms came with the modern movement in the arts. Clearly the music of, say, Schonberg was serious, bur not classical in the sense of Bach and Beethoven. Stravinsky's music was a bridge between the two genres. It was classical music in part, and touched with African-influenced syncopations and dischords. So terms like "art music" and "modern music" were used by art critics and academics in their writing.
Art music can be defined as serious music with a written musical tradition. The term art music is used often and has a clear meaning. Musicologist Philip Tagg calls it one part of an clear and unquestioned "triangle consisting of 'folk', 'art' and 'popular' musics". He explains that each of these three is distinguishable from the others according to certain criteria. The main tradition in the Western world is usually called classical music. In this regard, it is frequently used as a contrasting term to popular music and traditional or folk music.