Art music (or serious music or erudite music) is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition. The notion of art music is a frequent musicological distinction, referred to by musicologist Philip Tagg as an "axiomatic triangle consisting of 'folk', 'art' and 'popular' musics." He explains that each of these three is distinguishable from the others according to certain criteria. In this regard, it is frequently used as a contrasting term to popular music and traditional or folk music.

The term is mostly used to refer to music descending from classical tradition. This is the common definition of musicologists and scholars including Susan McClary, Theodor Adorno, Deryck Cooke, Joseph Swain, Nicolas Cook, Nicola Dibbens, and Philip Tagg. However, some other authors interested in music theory may define it differently. Musician Catherine Schmidt-Jones for example defines art music as "a music which requires significantly more work by the listener to fully appreciate than is typical of popular music." In her view, "[t]his can include the more challenging types of jazz and rock music, as well as Classical."