You could say it is because sound is a vibration of matter, whereas light is a vibration of a different medium. You can feel sound with your body, but you can also feel light with your body. Neither are very adept measurements of our surroudings, and both light and sound are interpreted in the mind in ways that both reflect (or echo) our external environment. Yet both are mysterious experiences in themselves of taken in the whole. So at a fundamental level, psychologically... why does music wants to make us dance but a beautiful painting wants to make us stop and reflect? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aLpVcL3ALw"]YouTube - Chapel Club - Surfacing
how would you dance to a painting? flashing lights would be a better example. either way, i don't really know the answer.
truth. paintings, sculptures, sunsets, sunrises, vistas and views, it's all the same. and really bright light just makes me squint and hate the sun.
I think dmob's answer is about as deep as you need to get. Visual cues are more for decision making and high-cognitive function (unless something's coming towards us). Music is much more connected to motion in itself. The vibrations of the strings and the drums. Whereas, we don't typically perceive light as motion. I picture light being much more likely to make people dance before electricity, too. We've grown rather accustomed to it.
it's really simply down to what's required to enjoy the medium properly and not be distracted by other inputs. you don't need your eyes to hear. in fact, how often do you close your eyes to better enjoy a sound? how often do you turn down the radio to think?
Its possible that there might have been a transition from a manual language to a spoken language. The fact that people still gesture with their hands while speaking could be some kind of evolutionary holdover. It would also account for why its so easy for humans to acquire signed language.