From his explanation of how he discovered music. He comes from a working-class background where tastes were not "refined" at all. He tells me that he was about twelve or thirteen when he first heard classical music, and he says that that experience was something that was profoundly transformational; he speaks of it in almost religious terms.
I think I can understand this.
Because I've had a similar experience.
I was totally innocent regarding music, when one day my father decided to bring me two redords of Mike Oldfield from a trip to a music shop.
One of them was Five Miles Out.
I was totally ... impressed by this kind of music I found with Taurus II.
This impression became even greater with Tubular Bells, which I bought a bit after that.
Besides, I think my very first self-bought album was the musical "Chess".
Since then, I both love what's called "classic rock" and highly complex stuff like Tubular Bells.
Personally, I have made up a theory that things happening to us during the Puberty affects us much, much more than other things - I assume that this leaves kind of a stamp on us.
I think that's why I love this kind of music I learned then much more than other kinds of music.
A bit to the "taste" problem: I also believe that harmonies are most wanted, regardless of taste or intellect.
I found this while recently discovering the album "In Blue" by the Corrs for me. Their singing is full of harmonies, and I love that.
I assume that most people long for harmonies in music, and maybe even vocal harmonies, and I think this might have something to do with humans being social beings, and choirs just being the normal layout/form of making music.
Recently I began to read a book about African music, and I learned that music has a totally different meaning in many african cultures. Music is ? living. There is no living without music, and at least not with the first beat of all, which is the heartbeat.
I also learned that in african villages it was totally common to sing in groups - together, with something I had only known as ancient Greek choruses in drama
before.
So, I almost assume that singing together and producing vocal harmonies is nothing but an innate desire or wish of ALL humans, because
1. they are social beings
2. harmonies make them feel good
3. singing together vocal harmonies tightens the bond of social groups, maybe.
Looking at it from this perspective, Tolkien's "Great Singing" gets a different meaning. Melkor is the one who turns away from creating harmonies, but who wants to make up his own harmonies.
The effect of his trying is/was desastrous : He creates nothing but foul things with his voice, and other voices even fell silent, because his dis-harmonies became louder and louder and more and more disturbing the complex layout of all harmonies.
So, looking at Melkor from this perspective, he is nothing but an outsider, trying to make up his own things with breaking away from harmonies.
This is like splintering the whole creation of Arda into several things, into small shards, which do not know from one another, and even begin to fight one another, because there are no harmonies anymore.
Like in real life.