>>13574729I'm going to wager a guess, but a singular tone frequency inherently doesn't "sound good" to us. If I played a C, you would just hear it as it is.
However, if I played a C and a G, all of a sudden your brain instantly compares the two frequencies and understands them as a whole "sound". From here, the difference in frequency, a 'major fifth' in the music world, creates a Dissonance (important term) that then associates the freq. difference in accordance to a particular understanding. Major fifths are usually categorized as a "stable, grand" sound, where as major fourths tend to be quite mystical, soft, yet approachable.
It's also the difference between a sus4 chord and a major chord due to the anticipation/tension that the sus4 chord has due to frequencies that exist outside of the major chord frequency.
TL;DR, All music is, is just an arrangement of various frequencies ebbing and flowing in and out at different times throughout time. What causes things to sound "good" is when frequencies harmonize within their relative context established within the environment within the sound.
Why do humans find music appealing? Not sure, but if I were to wager ANOTHER guess, I'd say that it's similar to why we appreciate and hate certain sounds in an evolutionary sense. When you hear a fly buzzing near your ear, when you hear nails on the chalkboard, etc. Perhaps part of your amygdala is activated when hearing conflicting frequencies coexist simultaneously, such as the "Tritone"
Though, a LOT of what sounds "good" especially when it comes to music is extreeeemely environment and conditioning-based. A lot of traditional western music is built around12 tone equal temperament which, I assume, became widespread through colonization. However, the most interesting music comes from a lot of Eastern sources that standardized their own tonal tuning systems, creating a wide array of tonal and microtonal harmonies that we can't even imagine.
