Why do you think timbre is the “first filter” in musical decision making that determines which styles of music an individual enjoys?

Well, timbre is related with the envelope of the acoustic wave. The form of the wave will be received by your ear and then translated to electrical impulses to your brain. I think, that we are adapted to consider "continuous and smooth waveforms" as "nice", so timbre will be one of the first characteristics that your brain will analyze.

Well, in the music industry during the 80s  cyndi lauper took a risk in changing a certain type of music art into something creative with her hair dye and wild hairstyles that were bold, her style was entice and screeching that she actually did her get a lot of hate for it because at that time hair dye and crazy patterns wasn't the norm girl's just wanna have fun for example that changed the work of her genre and a lot of people were influenced by her ways. there was other people who took the dare but not a lot. that itself refers to change in art style, because modern times changed.