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Bringing up a poll about which music is the most liked by people and deducting from the results that the people like listening to music they already know is pointless. Naturally pieces that a lot of people know will be on top of such a list. You can hardly vote for a piece of music you haven't heard... If you wanted a clear result about whether people enjoy tonal music or atonal music more, take 10 tonal pieces, 10 atonal pieces, have everybody listen to them and then let them vote for one of them. (I'm not saying "atonality" would win in such a case of course, just that your poll doesn't really show anything.)
But of course it's true for a lot of people that they like listening to stuff they already know or which at least sounds familiar. Definitely not for everybody though and I'm not just talking of professional musicians. It would be a sad state if no person had any curiosity whatsoever, which luckily isn't the case. There are more people than you might think who are very willing to experience something new now and then.
They might not want to listen to Stockhausen day in and out, but they might still go to a concert under the right circumstances and especially if the newspapers write glowing reviews about the performance. They might not like everything, but there will be some things they can discover and even appreciate and they might even feel a bit proud of having "accepted the challenge" (I've seen that quite a few times). It's like reading Joyce or Proust, where you think "Ha! I did it!" when you're through. Or like climbing a mountain. And if you keep climbing mountains it will soon become more than "just" a challenge, you will begin to actually enjoy the scenery, the loneliness, the fresh air, the physical exertion. And if you're climbing a secluded mountain without paths where not many people walk, you might even get the feeling that you're somewhere where no human ever walked before and you're just like Columbus!
Many people are of course too lazy to climb mountains, but definitely not everyone.
I think the fear of "the public won't like it" is sometimes irrationally high when it comes to "atonal" music. That it's not the music the audience hears most of the time doesn't mean they're totally unable to "comprehend" or enjoy it. Don't underestimate your audience. I think a great part of the fear of new music comes from the fact that the musicians, publishers and concert managers always are so terribly careful about it and almost apologetic if they choose to take it into a concert program. And they always try to "make amends" to the public by adding some Mozart. They are practically telling the audience "This is hard to hear music! We're so sorry for that!" instead of treating it naturally, like any other music, which wouldn't create this aura of difficulty and intellectualism. Treat your audience as grown up people. Let -them- decide whether they like the music that was played or not.
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