How do you 'listen' to new music?

I find that listening to new music is like encountering a foreign language, a significant learning curve must be addressed before understanding it. Often, my initial discomfort is replaced by curiosity. I find that a lot of the music that I initially find abrasive, or jarring is music I ultimately enjoy greatly.

hahaha
with my butt

The Slapster strikes again.

Boy, you're missing out on the bi-aural experience! Although you've pretty much got it wired for any monophonic recordings...

Slappy, LOL. I can just picture you trying to get your 'ear' at tweeter highth. By the way, I've heard that this makes for an excellent passive tone control, reduces irritating highs and at the same time greatly increases the appearance of bottom end. Just be careful when some one comes into the room with a sharp stick!

Just like Siliab says, music is a language, and we have to learn the syntax and structure of a new language to become comfortable with it. I was lucky, my mom was a classical musician and I was exposed to it from day one. (Of course, her elitist dismissal of popular musics of all sorts meant I had to acquire that taste on my own.) The often repeated maxim that music is a universal language overly simplifies things. The elements of music are shared to varying degrees, how the are put together can render one form or another almost indecipherable to our ears at first. Repeated listening to new music without expectations of reward or understanding eventually will lead to familiarity and eventually appreciation I think. Of course, reading some music appreciation books about classical or jazz will enlarge our appreciation and comprehension a great deal.