why do you like certain songs

"Nevertheless, I ask this question: was it Beethoven's music that captivated her, its notes, or was it rather what the music represented, in other words, its vague affinity to the ideas and attitudes that Bettina shared with her generation? Does love for art really exist and has it ever existed? Is it not a delusion? When Lenin proclaimed that he loved Beethoven's 'Appasionata' above all else, what was it that he really loved? What did he hear? Music? Or a majestic noise that reminded him of the solemn stirrings in his soul, a longing for blood, brotherhood, executions, justice, and the absolute? Did he derive joy from the tones, or from the musings stimulated by those tones, which had nothing to do with art or beauty?"

Sometimes I have wondered why I like the music I like, and as it turns out, I don't really know. There are things that I can identify in music that seem pretty cohesive regardless of the style or genre or whatever, but it's not too convincing. I couldn't really argue some secret ingredient that exists in these songs. How can I listen and enjoy a song like, "Crazy" by Patsy Cline, "A New Level" by Pantera, and also "Veronica" by Elvis Costello. I don't think it really matters, I'm just searching for something common in all of that. I don't think it's something that depends on what I hear sonically, or melodically. There are countless songs with great melodies which I loathe, and there are many songs without much melody at all which I love. I suppose that if my ears sense something honest in the song, I gravitate towards it...but that doesn't explain my enjoyment of a song by Poison. I do think that the subjective nature of one's experiences and nostalgia in life reflects greatly in what one identifies with in art. The art takes the form of ones memories. Maybe art is merely a conduit, maybe it just connects people more closely to those personally abstract memories, it brings pleasant histories closer, or purges the unpleasant ones. The more I think about this, the more I think that music is the one thing that can amplify emotions which you are not even wanting to deal with, it's dangerously unpredictable and controlling. The task of identifying the source of music's affect and impact is as pointless as it is unending. When I was younger, the music I listened to mirrored my social surroundings, very genre specific, there is was pride that was rooted in the small "sub genre" communities. Punk, grunge, emo, hardcore blah blah blah. Looking back it was silly, but at the time, it seemed important and it provided identity. I guess that could be said for many things that you reflect back on after you've grown a little older. For me today, music is much less defined by genre and more defined by orgin, culture, history, and it's relation to the human experience.

What do you think? Is there a consistency in your taste when it comes to music? Is there any traceable pattern at all? It's fun to think about, for me anyway :-)