Most people don't want music to be anything more than entertainment. Except that's not entirely true, because who haven't felt a stirring in the soul (to put it as corny as possible) when listening to some sad song or a beautiful piece of music.
I think it was Mord who said something a while ago in another thread, about how normal people (people who don't lurk around online and obsess about music all day) mostly don't care about music on any deeper level than just wanting some rhythm and a catchy hook in the background (not the exact words by any means).
It makes perfect sense to me that someone who doesn't spend a lot of time caring deeply about music and geeking out over it wouldn't get to the point of being able to enjoy music that isn't immediately nice or relatable.
It's true that these people will watch horror movies, but those are exciting. Music works differently than a movie. Scary sounding music isn't a thrill ride like a horror movie. It's in fact initially difficult to appreciate because it will perhaps be atonal, abrasive, murky and ugly by the standards of radio programming.
I find it a bit harder to explain why 'normal' people will watch dramas, but not listen to melancholic music. But then again, aren't most dramatic movies that are widely liked rather MELO-dramatic? That would be more analagous to Celine Dion and Adele songs than anything, and people like those, despite the sort of negative lyrical subject matter that some songs like that can exhibit (melodramatic heart break songs).
That might have been a bit of a ramble, but whatever, no more off topic than most posts in here.
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