Before I start, I'm going to mention a few things. I am not talking about video game music. That can be a topic for another time. And I am most definitely NOT discussing music genres. That's a discussion where everyone loses for entertaining a topic that's mostly subjective next to "Sub or Dub" and how people want their meat cooked.
With that out of the way, lets get to the topic. When I say favorite elements of music, I don't necessarily mean music that you'd only listen to if it has it, but if it does, you would give it a listen every now and then.
For me I like samples, have a bias towards female vocals and some instruments, music that has ambience, choirs, and I may listen to the instrumental of the song if the vocals are mediocre but the music is good.
Samples are part of the reason I have my playlist as big as I do. I come across new music I never would have heard due to never hearing it played on the radio or not knowing it existed. Unfortunately for some of the samples, I have to go out of my way to find out where it's from and that's why I'm thankful for the internet having people willing to help with that.
Ever since I was young I always liked hearing a woman as the vocals for music. You could put two songs in front of me with the only difference being a guy/girl singing it and unless the female vocals are atrocious or the male vocals go above and beyond in comparison, I'll usually go with the female vocals.
Now when I say I like music that has ambience, I might be "cheating" by saying it's not just samples of birds or crickets or something like that. The ambience I'm talking about is also a note being held or notes being played with an echo/reverb in the background of a song.
Choirs in music remind me of the times I went to church on sundays way back when. I was bored with some of the church stuff, but I always was a fan of how synchronized the people would be when it comes to singing. That's also why I like when some samples of church music are used.