Where does musical taste come from?

I know that this has probably been asked before, but I am new and I could not find such a thread, so here it goes. What defines a person's musical taste? I understand that there are many factors such as cultural influence, nostalgia, family influence and such, but deep down where does ones taste come from? I tend to think that it has something to do which frequencies. I believe that music that one likes may imitate the frequency of one's body, or frequencies that are in harmony with that of the body. What do you guys think?

Awesome question to which I have no universal answer for. For me, I distinguish a musical compositions melody first. I think this is why I like 'classic/acid rock' so much and hate rap. Rap plays monotonous beats over and over repeating the same monotone lyrics. I have a problem with modern so called R&B for similiar reasons. Just because a singer can hit various notes doesn't make them good. It depends on how they construct the notes. For me, well constructed melodies form the same structures as words in well written poetry. Again, just my opinion.

I tend to agree. I prefer classic rock as well. I find it hard to listen to "popular" music these days because it is so predictable and repetitive. All uniqueness has been sucked out of music in favor of something more marketable. Most people who truly appreciate music can hear this happening. I can't come up with a logical answer to my own question either, it's one of those things that puzzles me endlessly.

I tend to think that it has something to do which frequencies

That is correct. Sound is the vibration of air molecules and music is a relationship of vibrations and the changes in them over a set duration.

Read the book "This Is Your Brain On Music" by Daniel J. Levitin, a great study on music theory and neuroscience.

Maybe there is a physical affinity in the vibration of the music and one's body. However, some people like a lot of music and some people are more selective — what would this imply?

That is a good question, and something that I've thought about as well. I think it could be because almost all genres of music at their core are similar.

I tend to think that it has something to do which frequencies

That is correct. Sound is the vibration of air molecules and music is a relationship of vibrations and the changes in them over a set duration.

Read the book "This Is Your Brain On Music" by Daniel J. Levitin, a great study on music theory and neuroscience.

They do this in 'rave' music. Use pleasurable frequencies and melodies.

Personally I like music that hits hard. Could be a ballad that struck a chord or some double bass blast beats. Like has been stated already, talent does not equate to being good.

For Pythagoras, both mathematics and philosophy are born from the structural
nature of music. And with the regulative measure following from an understanding
of the political/ethical effects of musical tuning, Plato builds an ideal
musical city founded on the same well-tempered measure and, in a similar
fashion, Aristotle invokes the ethical ideal of musical harmony (Nicomachean
Ethics, 1131 a-1134 b).

I commend reading the Notes from Babette Babich essays
The Philosophical
Practice of Music in Plato, Nietzsche,
and Heidegger

All arts as such appeal to our emotions, and music here is not an exception.

Emotions are something which we inherited from the Animal World; they are little but a certain Chemical "climate", created in our blood by our endocrine glands on demand of our Vegetative (Autonomous, Peripheral) Nervous System. The glands release the hormones into blood, and our Central nervous System interprets these hormones as "emotions" - fear is insulin, love is serotonin, aggression is testosterone, thrill is adrenalin, happiness is dopamine etc etc etc.

Certain selected combinations of sound frequencies, rhythm, amplitudes affect our Vegetative Nervous System and cause the action of the glands, responsible for the Chemical release. We listen to these selected sounds and experience emotions the composers want us to experience. These targeted emotions are different for different people, hence the tastes differ too. One seeks for relaxation, another for a bit of spleen, the third one wants to get agitated...

The relevant selections were found historically by trial and error technique, and the methods of sound producing in music are in constant development (and always will be). We started from primitive war marches of the Dorians (major) and lyrical flutes of the shepherds (minor), then this was evolving till we got Baroque music - advanced compared to Antiquity, but also primitive if compared with the music of today. If we now listen to Baroque composers, we can immerse ourselves into the emotional world of Renaissance and post-Renaissance, this music is always simple and suggests almost direct action onto our nervous system. Since 18th century music becomes complex technically, and by now this complexity has been already too tiring for us, we got used to it, so many of us swing back to the primitive music like rock. Music evolves, and musical tastes change - but the sense remains the same, it is a method of directly passing the emotions of the composer to the listeners, using the general commonalities between our nervous systems as of a specie.