The history of Western music is closely tied to the history of Western classical music:
- Early music
- Medieval music (to the 15th century)
- Renaissance music (16th century)
- Baroque music (17th and first half of the 18th centuries)
- Classical music era (1750s to beginning of the 19th century)
- Romantic music (19th century)
- Modern Classical Music (from the 20th century)
- Minimalist music (from around the 1960s)
- Minimalist music (from around the 1960s)