[eagleal]

Being trained to appreciate it.

Ambient music in harmonics or patterns is a lot more abstract and different then pop, so to the untrained ear it looks more generally like "static noise" and boring. Trained ears you can for example take notice of evolving patterns (albeit their usually slow evolution, seemingly repetitive). And it's not only about the stuff you're hearing but also about what could be and what I call the negative space in-between (sorta like the counterpoint in classical music).

It's the same phenomenon as to why you'd like more songs on a particular genre you're accustomed to like Pop, then to something different in patterns like Metal.