I agree with Matt in that I'll listen to anything I think is good.

As for me, I was raised listening to Pete Seeger's childrens records when I was a kid, as well as Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel (and I love all of those guys and their music!).
As I got older, my dad was buying CDs of blues artists he had records of in the 60s. Guys like John Hurt, Blind Willie Johnson, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, etc.
In high school, A teacher of mine got listening to groups like Earth Wind and Fire which got me into soul. Then I found Paul Simon's Rythm of the Saints CD which had been sitting of the shelf for years and listened to it. I then found the Video of the Graceland Tour and was introduced to African music.
I have since been listening to all sorts of music from all over the world. It helped that my parents raised me listening to a lot of it, but I had to find it myself again at some point.

As for the issue of getting young people to listen (as if I'm not young enough) young people want to feel that what they are listening to is new. When working with Jr. High kids last year, they were always talking about Kid Rock, Britney Spears, Nsync, etc. It was funny to me because I could see it as what I listened to in the late 80's in a different package (MC Hammer, etc.) That's a hard issue to adress to deal with. Most of them haven't had a chance to really experience it, so they just listen to what's cool. Image is what sells with a lot of young people. That's what your dealling with.
Just my thoughts from observations.

BMW