Contemporary art music, often referred to as contemporary classical music, is art music that has been written from around the latter half of the twentieth century up to the present time. It is probably a more descriptive term of most such music because most of it does not sound similar to classical music in either its narrow sense (music composed during the Classical era) or in its broad (i.e., also inclusive of Baroque and Romantic era music) sense.
With contemporary art music the emphasis is often on one or more of the numerous novel compositional or performance techniques that have been developed in recent decades rather than on emphasizing traditional craftsmanship. These new techniques include the application of new technology, such as electronic instruments (especially electric guitars, keyboards and synthesizers) and electronic recording, the use of other new instruments (such as drum kits), the use of a wide variety of unconventional objects to produce sound, and the use of traditional instruments in new ways to produce novel sounds.