A genre containing brilliant, timeless works by musical geniuses such as Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Wagner, and a whole host of other European dudes you've probably never heard of. Absolutely brilliant
music, especially considering the difficulty a person had to go through to compose before electric instruments and computers. Technically, "Classical
Music" refers to the instrumental
music of the 1750-1825 period, containing composers like Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, but nowadays the term covers pretty much all
music made with orchestras.
Also, a word used by upper class snobs used to justify their shitty intellectual tastes in
music that they only listen to because they want to consider themselves to be educated and classy. Some composers of classical
music, such as those of the atonal and serialist genres, deliberately make their
music as out of key and musically senseless as humanly possible, and then justify it because it's "intellectual", and took a lot of intelligence and effort to create. The proponents of this form of
music then go out and loudly proclaim how their musical tastes are far superior to those of the common unwashed plebeians, who dirty their ears with foul peasant
music like
rock, or even *scoff* "rap".
These musically educated persons then retire to their weekly top hat appreciation parties and discuss with other like minded individuals about kids these days have no respect for their elders.
I personally think that classical
music can be utterly brilliant, but the classical
music enthusiasts who constantly insist that they're intellectually and musically
superior to everyone else just piss me off.