For the avoidance of doubt:
It would not surprise me to learn that true tone deafness was hereditary. What I was saying would be “racist” was the assumption (not made by anyone here, mind you) that having a darker skin color automatically meant that said person could sing like Aretha Franklin/James Brown/other talented singer of your choice.
(Yup, it’s another old thread. Fifteen years old in this case. Some of these people may well be deceased!)
What I want to know is, why can *anyone *sing so well? That people can sing as well as, say, Bob Marley or Bob Dylan does not surprise me. But the ability to sing like Sam Cooke, Steve Perry, Sinead O-Connor, or Luciano Pavorotti…that, I find hard to understand. It’s clearly not an essential trait, or it wouldn’t be rare. So why, evolutionarily speaking, is it a trait that exists at all? Is this just a peacock thing?
We prefer that you open a new thread rather than revive one that’s so old unless you are providing new information. I’m closing this one.