Haha well, my friend, there’s a good bit in your comment I disagree with. I’m confused by your assertion that there haven’t been any talented black musicians on the charts since the 80s. I mean, the R&B genre alone has supplied us with many incredibly talented Black musicians throughout that time, and they’ve dominated the charts. There are, of course, examples across all other genres as well.

I’d say hip-hop as a genre certainly does require musical talent, particularly if you make your own beats, as Kanye often has. Maybe making a melody on the computer is not a traditional method, but it certainly requires all the same comprehension of musicality to do it well. Though I’d agree, a hip-hop song might verge more into the domain of skill with language than other forms of music.

And I think the “mere exposure effect,” as they call it, does have a great impact on what we like by way of familiarity, but I don’t think it’s as simple as that. I think it’s a part of it, but definitely not the whole explanation of why we like or don’t like things. I’ve loved songs after hearing 10 seconds of it.

Lot of food for thought here, Renato. Thank you for your kind words and the well-developed comment!