Musical preference - WHY?

On the way home last night I had BBC radio 2 on, and they were broadcasting a concert with Bruce Springsteen with a different band (violin/fiddle, accordion, horn section, slide guitar, keyboard and drums). The music was kind of 'traditional' American music with a strong folk/hoedown feel, and the violin and accordion featured highly as the lead instruments.

I ended up with a dilemma.

The musicianship was quite superb, the fiddle player especially was stunning, and the accordion player great.

I wanted to switch it off - the instruments and the music itself turned me off.

In the end I took a decision to listen on, and actually thought at one point that if those same notes had been played on a guitar in a slightly bluesier context it would have sounded fabulous. Why is it that one instrument really has it and another really doesn't? There are guitar players that love Paganini stuff, and will reproduce it stylishly, yet played on a violin it just grates. This is frustrating, because I was trying to set aside my prejudices, yet came away feeling like the traditional format instruments would have sounded so much better. There was one song they did where the format did become bluesier (How can a poor man live through times like these) and suddenly it all hit the spot. I really wanted to like all of it, I honestly did, but it just wasn't happening.

Nuts.

Why does good musicianship with the wrong tunes get up my nose so? Is musical appreciation learned and FIXED behaviour?

One other interesting thing. After they played the first number in this style there was a lot of booing from the audience, to the point where the boos nearly drowned the cheers. Wonder if they were expecting classic Springsteen and the E street band? By the end of the 3rd number the boos had stopped, so they'd either left or were into it by that time. Interesting though.