Art music is the term now in vogue in place of ‘classical music’, no longer in use since it has many other connotations in the Western world. The term ‘classical’ denotes the styles prevalent in the ancient Greek arts and also styles in Western classical music represented by the music of composers like Beethoven and Haydn that preceded the ‘Romantic’ style. ‘Classical music’ and ‘art music’ are terms that distinguish music much different from the ‘popular music’. In modern times, the term ‘art music’ is used to avoid any ambiguity.

Art music concerts are well known. They are primarily performed by one and sometimes two singers or by (one or two or more) performers of musical instruments like the nagaswaram, veena, flute, violin, gottuvadyam, and mandolin. Art music is often presented for entertainment in music halls as a commercial proposition and marketed in recorded form as cassette tapes and compact discs.