Listening to music I don’t particularly like

I also prefer excellent sounding content.

Happily I like Jazz, and both early Mono and most Stereo (not reprocessed) Jazz includes great engineers that knew what they were doing. I do put in the 'sell' shelf, albums from artists I like with crap engineering. So many new to me artists to discover, and additional content of favorites.

I play fun memory type LP's, 60's, 70's  like you describe, great songs and beat but nothing special accoustically, using a separate MM replaceable ML stylus, avoiding wear on non-replaceable MC SAS stylus. My MONO is also replaceable stylus. CDs of course are and stay however good/bad they sounded.

Great sounding stuff, i.e. Eurythmics, Melissa Etheridge, .... I buy new LP's to replace my beat up ones. Not serious audiophile 45 rpm versions, just decent condition, near mint or new. 

Never

It is a pretty common trap for audiophiles. I was in that mode, and only after I broke away from the audiophile approved recordings did I really get to enjoy and learn. Good sonics can be found on LPs that are musically enjoyable, entertaining or challenging listens-- my ears opened up figuratively to all kinds of stuff I never explored. I now have a palate for things I would have never listened to before and written off as cacophony-- although I do find some "free jazz" remains a challenge.

I used to do these threads on other audiophile boards that were labelled "non-audiophile records" as a sort of counterpoint to the warhorses-- sometimes common stuff that was fun (lots of the Warner Green label and beyond was really well produced). Other stuff has gotten more recherche as my taste has evolved. Snob factor- not really- listen to what you like, the problem I confront is that a lot of this stuff is now in collector territory, but if you are patient and perhaps live with a CD or lesser copy until you find the OG copy, you don’t always have to pay a fortune. I just got a copy of Steve Reid’s Rhythmatism, which, while not exactly rare, isn’t so easy to find in top condition. Not cheap, but not crazy money, from an honest seller online.

I guess people use streaming services to discover stuff. I had this complementary trial of Qubuz, and looked up Cecil McBee- a very prolific jazz bass player in the ’70s who, as of this writing, is still with us. There was very little of his material on Q. So, for that, unless Tidal or one of the other streaming services has a deep catalog of what you are interested in, that may not be the best route to exposure.

Classic rock- still have a ton of it, most of the stuff I care about i went to the trouble to buy multiple pressings. I do have a thing for early heavy rock-- what would now be labelled proto-metal, but it was at the time, just hard rock. Like biker bar stuff. Juxtapose that with some cello solo recordings or soul jazz-- The Visitors- a/k/a The Grubbs brothers- cool stuff, well recorded, again not easy to find a mint copy unless you live near some good used record stores, but the hunt is also part of the fun.

I will sometimes gravitate to music that is recorded so well that although it might not be my first choice it is very enjoyable anyway. I still listen to all of my old music though including those atrocious 80s CDs not replaced and my old LPs as well.

I suspect it depends on how I feel, but with a very enjoyable system it's a pain to listen to some mediocre recordings. My LPs do not pop so they still sound great!

One advantage of having a nice system is listening to it and I think trying new music is an ancillary effect.

I often have Linn Jazz on my system - I have my system on a large portion of the time including when I'm away so my dog doesn't feel alone.

There's some vocal jazz tracks with some amazing vocalists.  There was one song I heard - I stopped what I was doing to find out who it was.  (It was Nikki Yanofsky)  I thought that was really cool!