[gruseom]

I think that for many people music is deeply connected with ideas about identity, such as "this is the kind of music I like" and "I am the kind of person who likes this kind of music". This is very visible in popular music, where how the performers look and who they are is as important as the music itself.

Because of this, the satisfaction of listening to music isn't only auditory or aesthetic, but also an identity satisfaction, of feeling one's ideas about oneself confirmed.

It's probably true that humans inject identity ideas into everything, so this is nothing special to music. But it's a strange situation, since music per se is the most abstract of the arts and this extra layer we put on top of it is so obviously extrinsic.

[kiiski]

Maybe it's precicely because of the abstract nature of music that people need to judge it based on something more concrete.

[gruseom]

Could be, especially when you combine that with its immense emotional power.