It's something that has occupied my mind a lot too. If I didn't like music, I would have saved a big bag of cash by now!
I am also fascinated as to why some Eastern music can sound so angular and awkward to our ears and yet beautiful to others.

I can't work it out either.

Super sensitivity to sound I guess.
Different types of music give different feelings

I find certain sounds, like yesterday as my guys were bashing around with metal shelves from racking, utterly horrid, torture.

The Balinese thing could be cultural and rooted in where we are born

My previous post seems to refer to my question about Eastern music, but it kind of feeds into the view that our emotions in response to a piece of music are triggered by our expectations. For example, when you are listening to a passage of music, your brain is predicting what is going to happen next and this is informed by your previous exposure to music. If your brain accurately predicts what happens, then the desire to get what you want is satisfied and you get a little shot of dopamine. That's good! - It's what you get when you eat nice food, have sex, take drugs etc

On the other hand, if your little subconscious mental prediction is wrong, you become just a little bit frustrated and there's no reward of dopamine. This is why a cover version of a song can seem so badly wrong.

As your experience of music grows, your brain is better able to accurately make those predictions and so you are able to cope much better with what you would have previously thought was awkward or jarring.

Just one theory. Not mine!
'Emotion and Meaning in Music' by Leonard Meyer

By far and away the best method of losing ones self without the use of psychotropic substances or other legal addictions.

Will not divorce you, lock you out of the house, go flat, taste off or generally abuse you

It is a superb way of exploring human kind without leaving the comfort of your listening room.

Two parts
The biggest thing that changed my musical taste was learning to play the guitar. This opened up different genres and also changed how I listened to music.
I remember in my 20s if you were to tell me I listen to a lot of tabla based music I have laughed at you. But listening to more music from different cultures opened this up
I think another reason might be I watch quite a few Japanese and Chinese films so the music is quite familiar to me so perhaps that also has something to do with my taste for some Asian based music. I could not listen to Gamelan based music its just to outside for my ears.
Its harder to explain why I actually like music, we talking about such a personal experience that for me touches some place inside. So I feel a deep emotional connection to music that somehow enriches my life in a positive way.

Im with pj on this. The sense of not bothering about anything else,the "me" time and the fact it's all my own wee way all appeal to me. I also enjoy the actual listening and really getting into the music. As with pj then I like the sociable side of it as well - I think having the TV on when friends are round is simply terrible manners but having music on and maybe sharing your latest finds is great.
There's also the sense of memories and plans to come that music can provoke and it's also a great way to motivate yourself and distract your attention from a crappy job!

Totally agree re TV, it is the most inconsiderate and IMHO rude and un-sociable thing to do. My mother-in-law in seriously bad at it and it drives me insane, but then again we have never got on so I guess that doesn't help.