I recall that when I read, and subsequently watched, The Glass Menagerie there was this bit at the start about all memory being set to music. I kind of liked that.
A lot of music I listen to is music I grew up with. My parents always played the Guess Who, the Beatles, Van Morrison and other stuff like that when I was a kid. It kind of grew on me after a while.
Otherwise, it is really hard to say why I would listen to the music I like ... something to ponder indeed ...
I'd have to say that in a lot of cases I select tunes because I can identify with them on some level. And yet on the other hand, a lot of my favourites I could not make that statement for.
Other times its the sound of the instruments ... sometimes a really good guitar solo can move me in ways that nothing else can. I'm sure everyone knows that feeling.
Anyway, I listen to songs I connect with in some way, musically, lyrically, or even spiritually. That's why my tastes are all over they place. I could find a country song that I like because the lyrics remind me of home or something, and then hear another song by the same artist and think it was one of the worst songs ever recorded. Likewise, I could have some death metal playing because it reminded me of how I felt on some day when the world seemed like it was going down the toilet, but then if I listen to some other band in the genre I could just think it was yelling.
Anyway, music is memory, and memory is music.