Music is an art form that involves organised sounds and silence. It is expressed in terms of pitch (which includes melody and harmony), rhythm (which includes tempo and meter), and the quality of sound (which includes timbre, articulation, dynamics, and texture). Music may also involve generative forms in time through the construction of patterns and combinations of natural stimuli, principally sound. Music may be used for artistic or aesthetic, communicative, entertaining, ceremonial or religious purposes. The definition of what constitutes music varies according to culture and social context, with varied interpretations of the term being accepted under sub-genres of the art.

Within "the arts", music can be classified as a performing art, a fine art, or an auditory art form.