I want to give some reasons to try listening to Turkish music. At least, these are reasons why I listen to it. I try to give some arguments as well.
For the moment, most of these arguments deal with Ottoman Classical Music. I do mention folk music a tiny bit, but I still need to work out my ideas for that. When I do, it will probably be a bit more interesting...
You may have read that already on the home page. Let me elaborate. Personally, I do not feel uneasy listening to it. It does not assault me (at least as hard) when I listen to it, but it is not so weak that I immediately loose interest. If I had to describe it, it would be like eating something in the lower-middle (think 40%~ish) range of spicy food tolerance. You are not eating bland, boiled meat, but it is also not gut-slaughtering, necromancer food. It definitely gets your attention, but it does not, at least for me, repel me.
I have also heard someone say that listening to Ottoman Classical Music specifically made them feel like they were going to be killed in a desert after days without water. When I asked why, they were not able to explain why. I assume this has to do with assosciations that are made frequently in non-Middle Eastern culture. For this, please, please, go watch Farya Faraji's video on Orientalism (actually just watch his channel in general). Istanbul is not in the middle of a desert; why Ottoman Classical Music is assosciated with a desert, I cannot completely explain.
I do not feel uneasy when I listen to Ottoman Classical Music, or, if I do, its the kind of unease that's not creepy, it just keeps you alert. I am not saying that it is the best music to fall asleep to, but it is not so out there that nobody should listen to it. All I can say is this: if nothing else here convinces you, that is fine, but at least give it a listen. Choose an album from my Ottoman Classical Music page and play it on YouTube, and see what you think. Just one album is fine. Hopefully the music will speak for itself in this matter.
Ultimately, maybe a different word would be better do describe Turkish music, and admittidely this is maybe more true of Turkish Folk music: chill.
To be honest, most of these points will just relate to each other. Anyway, just like the first reason, it is not completely alien to the Western Modes; they are even a part of Turkish music, but Turkish music does not just stop at these. It features the art of what we call "microtones", but not as a synthetic thing like in some microtonal Western music. Turkish music obviously has a tradition behind it; I think that this helps it feel more natural. I will talk a bit more about these microtones in a bit.
Ok, at first, this was kind of a throw-away reason, even if I think it is true, but honestly, the Usuls that Ottoman Classical Music features can be very complex. What I hear of a lot of "standard modern Western music" only features a handful of beats/rhythmical patterns, while there are many more in Turkish music. Yes, at least in my own head, I can kind of condense the beat into a much simpler one, but, if you listen to the actual usul, it has a lot of elaboration on it. It would be like looking at a painting and saying that, "yeah, there is a lot of green, red, and blue," but sometimes Western music is just the bland, RGB, flat, soulless corporate art simple beat it is. Now, I do not listen to rap outside of the ones made for the Linux Rap Battle a while back, but even though there are, at their core, basic beats, at least they seem to be more elaborate. How many pop/country/etc. songs have a straight 4/4 beat going on? When they get crazy, they may have a song in 3/4; oh what a novelty! Yes, Ottoman Classical Music can be counted in 3s, 4s, 5s, etc., but the usuls usually are more complex than just that. -For folk music, don't even get me started on Aksak.- And then we also have Taksim, which really does not have an usul to go with it. Basically, IT JUST GOES. It is improvisational, so I guess this makes sense. My point is this: people talk about "sick beats," how much are they missing out on by not listening to Turkish music, especially Ottoman Classical Music!?! Yes, the beats seem more "simple" with the folk music, but those just slap regardless.
YES, this will take time to get used to, if you have never listened to any microtonal music. I wanted to say this first. BUT, in Ottoman Classical Music, almost never do the microtonal notes sound completely "disgusting" to a westerner, at least to me as a westerner. I mean that most of them just fit together, and, after enough listening, they feel at home where they are in their respective makams. Yes, this will take the most time to get used to with Ottoman Classical Music, but I want to argue that it's highly worth it.
With the same 12 notes, there is only so much that can be done after a while. Adding more can allow us to make more interesting melodies. Now, these "extra notes" are not just thrown in; certain ones are selected to be part of a makam. This is why it sounds, at least to me, natural, even if I do not have the benefit to have grown up listening to it.