I don't believe that music was always so "heart stirring."
There are many different scales that are used in music, the major, minor, pentatonic, chromatic, whole tone, etc. Honestly, some of these scales are just crap. This doesn't replace the fact that music has been used as long as we have record of people.
My idea, as with visual art, is that music is an attempt to control sound. Even before CDs, composed music, any eventions, ect. people were flooded with sounds. Our own voices, the wind blowing through an object, a bird singing, the sound of a group of individuals running. I believe music is the attempt to mimic and thus control those sounds... at least in the beginning.
It rapidly changed to control something else, the music of the heart. Humans strived to put into music something that they couldn't hear with their ears, their soul. Then we just had notes in song. Eventually we added instruments and found great joy in the fact that instruments could accompany our voices to create a sweeter emotion. Considering we build off of the generations of the past and then add a little, every generation we added a little more music and a little more soul. It wasn't till the Baroque period, many centuries after our first records of music, that we find music that is purely instrumental.
Everyone enjoys their own style because I think every type of music emplores a different type of emotion. People who long for love in their heart will usually enjoy love songs, ballads, country, rock songs with love themes, ect. People who are rebellious wil usually want hard rock, alternative, rap, techno, etc.
I have found as I've gotten older my music tastes have changed a lot. There are also songs that signify points in my life. When I was a child that song was "This Use to Be Our Playground" by Madonna. Why? Because I was about 12 at the time and it was when I really realized the affects of my parents divorce and I wanted to go back in time and correct it. Every time I saw my dad I was reminded of the fact that I use to have a stable playground.. but it is no more.
When I got into high school the song was "Smash Hit" by All Star United. The lyrics (cause I'm pretty sure you haven't heard it are) "This Jesus thing is a smash hit; it's packaged right." Well, that's the important line. In high school I was the gung hoiest (lol.. is that a word) Christian you would have ever met. Thus the song that represented me was a song that represented my emotions.
My senior year in high school I was dating this guy who I fell head over heels with. He treated me like crap, ripped my heart out, and I hated guys after that for about a year and a half (not including the 11 months I was with him). My song during that period was NIN's "Something I Can Never Have." --- 'Just a fading fucking reminder of who I use to be.'
After that in my myriad of guys and tons of books of college my song became that of Alanis Morissette's "Not the Doctor" I was tired of being the one to pick up other people's pieces, to solve other peoples problems. If I didn't create them I didn't want anything to do with them. So the song that I listened to repeatedly during that time represented that.
Now, I'd have to say my song is "Bed of Lies" by Matchbox 20.
No I would not sleep in this bed of lies
So toss me out and turn in
And there'll be no rest for these tired eyes
I'm marking it down to learning
I am
Don't think that I can take another empty moment
Don't think that I can fake another
hollow smile
It's not enough just to be sorry.
Don't think that I could take another talk about it
Just like me you got needs
And they're only a whisper away
And we softly surrender
To these lives that we've tendered away
No I would not sleep in this bed of lies
So toss me out and turn in
And they'll be no rest for these tired eyes
I'm marking it down to learning
I am
Don't wanna be the one who turns the whole thing over
Don't wanna be somewhere where I just don't belong
Where it's not enough just be sorry
Don't you know I feel the darkness closing in
Tried to be more than me
And I gave 'til it all went away
And we've only surrendered
To the worst part of these winters we've made
I am all that I'll ever be
When you - lay your hands
Over me
but don't go weak on me now
I know that it's weak
But God help me I need this
I will not sleep in this bed of lies
Why? LOL... I think the lyrics are pretty self explanatory.
Of course, when I look back years from now this might not be the song. It's only in retrospective that I remember how I loved the song, and then understand why. Music is the expression of the soul, we are consumed by music, a certain style or song, because it calms us by telling us these emotions are okay, you're okay.