It seems the nature of music is inseparable with the way in which the brain perceives music.
One aspect of this thesis that sticks out the most to me is that most people don't want to get lost. They like things that repeat in an organized manner. It is comforting for one thing, but there is something far more fundamental to it.
Most popular music is simple and highly repetitious. It is comforting to hear that familiar pattern again and again. What you expect to be there is always reliably there. It also brings everyone together. Everyone hears basically the same pattern and have a similar experience as everyone else listening, and thus are able to move together. And there is this fulfilled need to participate in the music, as opposed to simply listen to it.
Then you have these cerebral artists that wish to challenge these elementary patterns, and veer off into the outer limits of human understanding. What is remarkable is that these types of artists can also attract a lot of people, but for different reasons. Sometimes listeners want to be challenged. It is pleasurable to become lost for a while.
But all the most popular forms of this music always manage to make it back to something familiar. Most people aren't comfortable with a temporary madness that doesn't resolve.
