Electronic and ambient music is wonderful because it is virtually limitless in what can be done with it.
It can follow any beat pattern, be formless or no beat at all as several Biosphere albums have proven.
It can utilize a million dollars in electronics, a simple Theremin, organic instrumentation or even the sounds of nature to create it's form.
It can span the entire spectrum of human hearing from window breaking bass to mosquito wing treble that makes you listen every time for something new. Ambient/Electronic music should never be listened to in lossy mp3 format whenever possible!
It does not have to conform to the 3 1/2 minute music fix that much of pop music does in order to be palatable to the public.
It works well to stimulate the mind, synchronize the hemispheres of the brain and permit desirable states of mood and emotion. This is also done with Binaural Beats which work well mixed with some ambient and electronic music. It also serves as a canvas upon which you can draw your own art and inspiration upon without someone else's words being beamed into your head.

And above all it certainly is not boring.
When someone tells me they do not like Electronic/Ambient music I kindly inform them that says more about them than it does about the music.
And oh yes, this bloke here likes ALL kinds of music from all around the world but Electronica/Ambient (and Ethnic World Beat) is the genre that continues to supply new and interesting sounds worthy of my listening time.

I can only tell you why I like the weird, abstract, nearly academic types of electronic music (Nurse With Wound, some Coil, some Aphex Twin, as well as plenty of purely academic composers you probably can't find on any record label), and that's because it's a medium in which, given the right tools, technique, and experience, a composer can be perfectly expressive. Without the temporal or physical limitations of instruments, and often, instrumentalists, the composer is free to create literally any sound they want to hear.

Physical instruments have, for example, limited range and timbre (and other properties, for example, on a string instrument, you can't glissando past the range of one string), and musicians (even the best) cannot play some sounds, even those that would be theoretically possible on their instruments. Think of, for example, extravagantly complex rhythms or pitch jumps, carefully controlled glissando, extremely long notes, and so on.

Electronic music gives the composer the freedom to imagine sounds that are, for all intents and purposes, entirely unnatural. I recently heard a three-movement piece that was a study on wood, water, and metal, where each movement was composed of only recorded sounds of either wood block, water drips, or metal striking, but where the samples had been pitch shifted, stretched, or compressed to the point where they were sounds that would be entirely impossible to otherwise generate physically.

This sort of freedom of expression is something that is rare to find in any other way within music, or even, really, any other art form (visual art is restricted to, for example, 2 or 3 dimensions, and a limited range of colors, while in contrast, sub- and super-aural frequencies can be used in music to great effect), and while it's not always used to full or pleasing effect, I find it to be at worst, utterly fascinating, and at best, phenomenally beautiful.

People usually tend to like a certain genre more than the others. I know people who love rock because of the great voices that have made rock in the past and they really enjoy sounds like guitar and drums, and they really enjoy the experience of playing an instrument and sharing with people, and also enjoy people who sing along to the same songs in rock festivals. Similar for metal fans, and you always got rap fans and similar genres who are big fans of rhymes and whatnot.

To me, Electronic Music (I’ll call it EDM as to me EDM encompasses all genres of electronic music) is something absolutely magical. It exploded a few decades ago with the use of synthezisers, and ever since then it has continued to evolve and add many possibilities to the way music can be made. Nowadays, the amount of sounds and songs that can be composed using DAWs and their respective plugins and other synhtezisers is absolutely incredible.

To me, the sounds that come out of synthezisers and basically any DAW plugin are incredibly pleasing and by twitching knobs you can make millions of combinations of sounds, I’d personally take that over any real guitar or drums any day! It doesn’t matter how much people tell me it is not real music, I will always love it with a passion.

The ryhtms involved in EDM music are incredibly good to dance to, and in a society that I feel is more and more isolated every day with the internet, meeting people who enjoy the same music, which by nature is very danceable and uplifting is completely amazing. The best day I can think of in my 18 years of life is the day I went to my first EDM festival with one of my best friends, no doubt.

EDM will always be a part of me, even if at times I listen to other stuff too. Mainstream House in my happy moods, House and Tech House for groovy awesome afternoons, Trance for getting lost in the rythm, Downtempo for sleepy and chill times. It is everywhere around me, and nothing makes me happier than sharing it with people.

(Another very personal and subjective answer)

Sort of adding to the "emotional range" bullet point in Mark Slee's answer:

It is analogous to reading the book vs. watching the movie. When you are reading the book, you can simply read through, following the story. Or, you can think deeper, trying to visualize the characters, the scenery etc. A lot more, is left to imagination. When you watch a movie though, all the characters are well defined, you know what you are looking at.

Similarly, when you are listening to a conventional song, you know the lyrics. You know the emotions that go with the tune. There is a set sequence of thoughts associated with the song. Not so for electronic music. Like a book, you can just go through it, let it play in the background, just enjoying the rhythm. Or you can imagine, trying to sense the emotions in the tunes. Try to make sense of the notes.

In high school, I used to mix videos of action scenes from Matrix with Prodigy tracks. And it was amazing to see how well the feelings of suspense and adrenaline rush in the movie blended so well with the flow of music in the track. The tracks had no meaning, and yet there was so much sense in them.

In a broader sense, this freedom from a set lyrics makes electronic music much easier for the mind to process, and makes it much more enjoyable.

This kind of question is only really going to be answerable with subjective answers. Why someone likes something is generally a personal experience.

For me personally, I like electronic music for 3 reasons. First, I love the sound, texture and feel of synthesizers. In this aspect, it's the same as asking someone why they prefer a piano, guitar or flute...you either do or you don't. Perhaps growing up as a child in the 1980s with both the popular media of the time or the simple blips and buzzes my first Nintendo offered as a soundtrack were the most likely influences in my affinity.

Secondly, electronic music, especially when referring to sequenced (sometimes referred to as programmed) songs, allows for interesting rhythms and structures that would be hard to compose and/or perform with traditional instruments.

Building on those two brings my final reason, variety. Other types of music have all been pushed close to their limits. There's really not much more you can do with an electric guitar that someone hasn't already done before. I'm not saying it happens all that much more often with electronic music, but there is a much greater possibility someone will compose a track that offers something new, something interesting, something unique.

I can’t speak for others because music is such an subjective pleasure.
And I’m not even sure I can speak for myself in this case, either, because, up until a few weeks ago, I didn’t know I would or could enjoy electronic music!

I must’ve listened to thousands upon thousands of albums over the years, but the electronic genre is one that never appealed that much to me. Most of it sounded like sustained chords with weird sound effects thrown on top. And coming from the world of intricately played improvisational jazz, it just sounded extremely simplistic and boring to me. Lazy, even.

I’d occasionally hear something interesting, like Vangelis’ score for Blade Runner.
But for the most part, the majority of electronic music seemed to fit neatly into a fairly predictable template of sounds and beats that kept being repeated ad nauseum.

Later in the 90’s, the club and rave scenes went mad and I came to associate electronic music with jumping hippie assholes on ecstasy who “loved everyone” and waived glow sticks around to prove how much they meant it.

I had a couple of friends who were very much into what was happening at the time, and they praised rave music to the high neon heavens. And they wanted me to join them on their journey of self-forgetfulness. But I couldn’t. I listened to their tribal drum and bass tracks which went on and on for hours, and I kept thinking: “When the fuck is something going to happen?”.

It was music purely designed for the dance floor. There was no sophistication behind it; no serious thought at all. If the music made you fall into a trance, that was all it wanted to do: make you fucked up in the head while you gyrated to the pretty lights.

No, thanks. Boring. Not my scene.

So I rejected it all and went back to my safe world of progressive jazz and rock.
And I stayed there for decades until I accidentally stumbled upon a track on YouTube by Jean-Michel Jarre, “Jonques de pêcheurs au crépuscule”.

Like a lot of my people my age, I grew up hearing Jarre’s classic song “Oxygene 4” on the radio…..and then not so much else. I knew he was a big name in the electronic field, but he only really had the one pop song, so as far as I was concerned, he disappeared with my childhood.

Well, here was this track on YouTube and it sounded nothing like what I would expect from an electronic artist. On the contrary, it sounded like a centuries-old traditional Chinese folk song! WTF? Was this a one-off experiment or had Jarre completely changed artistic direction at some point?

I was curious, so I delved deeper.

At turned out, the song was a centuries-old Chinese folk song which Jarre “spruced up” a bit and then recorded with the Peking Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra at some point during his 1981 tour of China.

Furthermore, Jarre was apparently the first western artist to perform in China after the Cultural Revolution. Even preceding the mighty Wham! by 4 years! Impressive!

Now, the music I’d heard sounded nothing like “Oxygene 4”. It was as far removed from it as could ever be imagined. But it did awaken my interest in Jarre as an artist.
If he’d surprised me once, what else did he have in store?

I decided to go on a tour of discovery.

The first stop was the classic “Oxygene” album. I knew it was popular, but I didn’t know that it’s sold in excess of 18 million copies! Not bad for a French instrumental album!

Oxygene - Part I (1976)

I was immediately impressed by how good analogue synths sounded in comparison with modern digital crap. Of course I was already very familiar with them from other genres of music recorded in the 70’s, but I don’t think many mainstream artists ever utilized their full potential the way Jarre and his electronic peers did at the time, so hearing the instruments played in this way was a true eye-opener for me.

I was also impressed by how Jarre essentially did all of it himself at home in his apartment. With relatively basic equipment and a lot of ingenuity, he managed to create the sound of the future at a time when punk rock was all the rage. And by doing so, he probably ended up being the biggest punk of them all by going against popular convention!

He wasn’t looking backwards. And he wasn’t addressing the here and now.
He was using his music to comment on our potential future, based on our history and current destructive behaviour combined. And whereas this could’ve easily come across as preachy and pretentious, the music itself soon lay any such worries to rest.

The album still sounds like the future. Unlike a lot of sci-fi novels and films who dared to predict what was to come and failed to do so, Jarre’s masterpiece succeeded by being brave enough to present an abstract vision based on themes of social awareness that due to our species’ inability to learn from history, proved to be timeless in its structure, relevance and presentation.

This was the thinking man’s music! Fuck yeah!

Needless to say, I was sold. And whenever I’m sold, I buy everything.
So I went through the rest of Jarre’s extraordinary discography, uncovering gem after gem of sonic beauty that I probably would never have heard if it wasn’t for that happy recommendation on YouTube.

But I wanted more. And I got more.

If Jarre alone could change my perception of an entire genre of music, perhaps his contemporaries could do the same? I knew that I wasn’t too enamoured with more recent stuff, but the original analogue pioneers truly seemed to have been on to something back in the day. So I was sure there had to be more jewels to unearth.

And there certainly were! A few brief Google searches brought my attention to the big names of the genre. And I devoured their output with great gusto!

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra (1974)

Klaus Schultze - Moondawn (1976)

Both hugely impressive and influential albums of impossible beauty.

And while listening to them, I was reminded of how I used to listen to Kraftwerk as well. And although those crazy Germans had the audacity to include vocals (!) on their records, they did produce their most famous work during the same mid-70’s period as these other albums were made, so I felt a tinge of nostalgia and decided to give their output a go as well.

Kraftwerk - Autobahn (1974)

And Brian Eno, of course.

Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978)

And by association, the perhaps more obvious…

David Bowie - Low (1977)

I never knew I liked electronic music. I guess as a classically trained guitarist, I instinctively dismissed the idea of bald nerds in shades headbanging over their laptops on a stage in front of thousands of high teenagers.

And I still think that image is fairly ludicrous in many ways.
I don’t think it accurately reflects the full picture of what electronic music has to offer.

Once upon a time, long before computers took over the way we compose, produce and perceive music, analogue synths were used to create sounds that nobody had ever heard before. The music was new. Daring. Exciting. Frightening. Calming. Thought-provoking. Beautiful. Romantic. Ugly. Disgusting. And everything in between.

I think modern electronic music has lost a lot of that. The focus now seems to be much more on creating a commercial sound that more often than not overwhelms the music it’s supposed to support.

You no longer need a solid structure for your pop confections. As long as you’ve got a good beat and a deep bass, the idiots will buy it. And the idiots want to dance; not listen, so producers get away with being lazy.

But the pioneers of the 70’s were NOT lazy. Hell, you can hear the effort they put into their work. They didn’t have access to modern equipment. There were no templates to follow. No presets. Everything had to be dreamed up from scratch and somehow recreated on instruments that were often custom made and in their experimental phase themselves

Jean-Michel Jarre didn’t have a drum machine. If he couldn’t artificially produce a “drum-like” sound out of pulsating sequences of repeating notes, he had to use glue and hammer to put together tape loops to do the job for him.

And I think it’s that idea of homemade futurism that appeals to me so much.
These early albums were not only composed and performed, but they were made at a time when they weren’t supposed to exist.

Today, any fool can produce futuristic sounds on their smartphone, and it’s just not the same. It doesn’t require the same amount of passion and artistic vision as doing it with the most primitive equipment does.

We’re spoiled today. It’s too easy. We’ve become lazy. And laziness is the poison of creativity.

Our technology allows us to create the sounds of the future with ease. and it just sounds so safe, boring and old as a result.

These European boys didn’t know what they were looking forward to. They had to imagine it. And then we ended up becoming the end result of their hard work.

I’d like to go back to the source they created and start an alternative timeline in which electronic music isn’t commercialized to the same extent, but instead kept pure with its original vision intact.

And having access to such great music from 45 years ago is truly inspiring.

It’s different to most “analog” music, draws on many different influences and is able to transcend genres that would otherwise not be mixed together. It’s also very rhythmic and allows for unlimited creativity. Generally electronic music can have elements from other “traditional” genres and get away with it purely by being unique.

Reggae crossed over with breakbeats. Techno mashed up with guitar samples. Choir vocals thrown into house with chugging basslines and shuffling beats. 303 acid synths thrown into a track with serene vocals and broken beats. 4/4 mixed with broken beats. Jacking house with techno elements and a breakbeat drop. Ambient intros thrown in 32 beats in as opposed to the regular 4/4 meter. It’s all there and I’m barely scraping the surface.

A real music lover will find a niche somewhere in electronic.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of genres and sub-genres of electronic music, each with a different feel. Most people like a few and despise others. “Electronic” is an incredibly broad category. For starters, here’s wikipedia’s list: List of electronic music genres - Wikipedia

Two very broad categories are EDM (Electronjc Dance Music) and IDM (Inteligent Dance Music). What most people who are unfamiliar with electronic think of when they hear “electronic music” is EDM. Usually more steady beats in a song structure more organized as a “track” to be played at a club. The sub-genres of EDM usually have their own beat pattern, like breaks that use the amen break or house/trance that uses a “4 on the floor” (kick drum every beat) pattern.

IDM is the name given to the more experimental electronic music. There aren’t many consistent beat patterns among different songs and structure can vary widely. I’ve been a musician my whole life, play a dozen instruments, and have been in rock bands for decades. I loved how IDM opened my mind to new sonic possibilities, transcending the need for instruments and creating sounds not possible for people to physically make.

Music is simply organized sound, after all. And it was so interesting to me to hear artists like Prefuse 73 or Spoonbill create percussion out of street noise, train whistles, etc. Or Alva Noto—whose creations can sometimes be better be described as “sonic art” than “music”—making concept albums about communication using fax machines or typewriters as his instrumentation.

After discovering IDM, however, I discovered that I also loved ambient music. Music that I can put on and ignore. Music that creates a mood but doesn’t demand focus, like an abstract painting hanging on a wall of a room where people are engaged in conversation. Again, many of the sounds in ambient IDM can’t be created with traditional instruments. For example, Loscil wrote a concept album called Submers, which is supposed to sound like you are underwater. Each track is named after a submarine. The effect is so comforting and enveloping.

Lastly, I do like some EDM. For me, I love the newest of sounds of new techniques and filters and plugins are coming out all the time. A cool beat with new and interesting timbres can be really fun to dance to. They don’t hold up for long… what was new 3 years ago often sounds stale now, such as the wobbly bass of early dubstep. My current favorite is a genre out of London called Wave music. Ambient post-dubstep often with haunting ethereal vocals and really cool arpeggios.

I think there’s something for everyone in electronic music.

“Why do people like electronic music?”

As I write this, I’m in the middle of compiling market data for a business article. It’s 7:02 PM on a Tuesday night.

While I’m doing research and writing this article, iTunes is open. I’m listening to John O’Callaghan - One Special Particle (Guy J Remix).

To most people, this would be excruciatingly boring. The thought of pouring over data for an article sounds like the dictionary definition of a snoozefest.

Instead, I’m enjoying myself. And I think it’s because I’m listening to electronic music.

When I used to listen to hip hop as a young teenager, I never really payed attention to the lyrics. I only cared about the beat.

If it had a good beat, I liked it. If it didn’t — no thanks.

Fast forward to University — I went to my first electronic music dance show and loved it. Despite being more introverted, I had an absolute blast even though I thought I would hate it.

This made me think — why do I like electronic music?

Why do other people like it as opposed to rock, jazz, or classical?

The main reason I think why people like electronic music is because it takes you out of your head.

That’s why I like it. As someone who spends a lot of time in his own head, listening to electronic dance music takes me out of my head and into my body.

I find it’s an amazing tool for facilitating flow states - when listening to electronic music while doing work, I’m completely immersed and fully focused on the task at hand.

If I put on a good mix or two, I can get everything on my to-do list done. Electronic music pulls me from my head and into my body, keeping me grounded in the present moment and focused on what I’m doing this exact moment.

Is it the repetitiveness? The melodies? The grooves? A combination of all three?

I don’t really know.

But electronic dance music has been my favorite genre for well over 3 years now, and I don’t see it changing for a long, long time.

Speaking for myself:

I like electronic music not because it's "electronic music" but because people making it are using new tools to allow them to extend the types of sounds and arrangements that can be part of music. That idea in theory is exciting and is the main appeal of "electronic music" generally. In practice, it comes down to the specific aesthetic appeal of the artist, and not so much the tools - electronic or acoustic - that they use.

My observation at large:

People typically associate electronic music with dance music. People like to dance. There are also more expert producers working in that field than ever before, so it's rich with content (although quality is another question). Add to that the integration of pop music and you have a strong explanation of the general popularity of "electronic music" in 2014.

It's not limited to any of the typical genres. Electronic music , whether you're aware of it or not, can be very unique. If all you ever bothered to investigate was the boring simple cliché type then you need to look further. It's painting with sound, inventing your own colors, and making a picture that isn't bound to human ability or to classical instruments. The only room for the typical genres and classical instruments to grow is in the directions provided by electronics. Most importantly, much of electronic music is instrumental, meaning it doesn't tell you what to think, it lets you think. I believe music without lyrics is the most considerate thing a musical artist can create.

If I discount the 80s electronica I used to listen to and assume you meant post 90s electronic music, I can say that my 'reason' is that at some point in my life I got tired of listening to people whining about their lost love, lost life, anger, problems etc. At the same time I was fascinated by the monotonous 4/4 beat. That was my gateway. A bit later I started producing my own tunes as well and a bit later than that found myself playing it to other people. But what started with a unexplained liking to 4/4 beats and bass lines progressed to other types of electronic music. I still think there is something primal in 4/4 and my 'music of the universe' consists of a perfect and massive 4/4 kick drum and nothing else.

Today I've gone the full circle and can say I enjoy people whining about stuff once more and when asked what kind of music I like I always answer "Good Music".

I fucking love it.From the time I was in grade 5.I have listened to so many generes and subgenres to see which ones I have liked the best. No other styles compare.Lets talk about one of my favorite genres which is called trance.Its complex,deep,dynamic and the most emotional of all. It feels good listening to it.and compared to music such as rap/hip hop/pop and all that other slow and boring stuff. I just like music that is fast with a strong beat and a nice deep solid bassline. I just cant get bored of it.I also listen to.Dubstep,Drum & Bass, UK Hardcore, Chillstep, Progressive, Tech-Trance, Hard Trance, Psy Trance, House, Deep House, Progressive House, Disco House, Liquid Drum & Bass, Electronica, Trip -Hop, Future Garage , Free form also called Trance core. and a few others I have not mentioned. I am an EDM addict ^^