How does music work?

on a neurobiological level, the research seems to be still in its infancy, at least going by the above story.

The day/night cycle has it's own rythym, the sounds of nature, ie; rain, thunder, animals and birds, and of course, the ocean. It's a primal response to the world we live in.

Music began (if you can believe Anthropologists) with drumming. That's about as basic and primal as it gets, possibly derived from our heart beat/the ocean. As our need to further express ourselves it became more complex, ultimately resulting in the pinnacle of musical expression - Heavy Metal! (just kidding)

So, music 'works' because it resonates with the natural rythyms that make the qualities we define as human.

Either that, or as Nick said, it attracts dust.

Personally, I think music is probably the most physiologically direct artform. That is, sounds tend to have direct physical effects, for whatever reason, that are more myriad and stronger than any other sensory input (the only stronger impulse I can think of is perhaps the visual stimulus that causes the "flinch" reflex, or maybe a good old fashioned hot stove). And the fact that, for example, you are adapted to be able to shut off visual information with the barest amount of thought by closing your eyes but can't do the same for your hearing means we are always open to sonic--or musical--experience. That seems significant. Also, I think that instrumental music tends to remain abstract information, even after being interpreted by the brain. I mean, we come to recognize raw sounds--a fax modem, a car horn--as set patterns the same way we come to recognize a familiar face or a stop sign, but music remains a deliberate abstract, even when produced by a familiar sound sources, such as a string quartet or a drum kit. We recognize a jaunty tune as a jaunty tune or a swinging beat as a swinging beat, but each new jaunty tune or swinging beat must be grappled with and assimilated as new information.

I don't know what all of that means, necessarily, but it surely is a fascinating topic.

On the other hand, maybe the the value of experimental music lies in pushing your perception out of its well-worn and favored pathways. I know that's the case for me. While you can't hum a Derek Bailey guitar improvisation, for example, I find such music wrong-foots my expectations and perceptions in a most enlightening, often enjoyable way. (There's a lot more to be said about the value and practice of listening to experimental music, but I'll refrain from saying it here.) Same thing with, say, Morton Feldman's superlong, low-dynamics mediations for piano or strings, or any other musician/composer who stretches the usual parameters of harmony, rhythm, time, or memory that we bring to music.