Dear MMDer's,  Speaking as a professional pianist and former staff
organist of Pizza and Pipes, I have some experience on this subject
from a different but related perspective.  The general public, given
the opportunity, will almost always request crap.  Harsh?  Maybe, but
one thing's for sure: the listening audience wants to hear a tune they
are familiar with.  No matter how poorly it's played, if a request is
recognizable they will love you for playing "their song."

QRS knows this very well.  How many MMD readers are there that can't
wait to get the newest release?  How many of us really enjoy pumping
the top 10 or 20 on the QRS Top 100 list?  This isn't meant to be
snobbish; just realistic.  One _must_ play (or spool up) the tunes
that the listener wants to hear or they will leave.  Or die trying to.
Again, QRS has always counted on this to move rolls from day one.

Ask anyone with two functioning ears knows what kind of music they
like.  Whatever their reply is, no one in their right mind says,
"I hate all music of any kind."  Not everyone likes spicy food but
that doesn't mean they won't eat and probably will try it if it isn't
blazing hot.

Same with music, especially organ music: teenagers and most adults
associate organ music with churchgoing and funerals.  Playing a tune
that they've heard on the radio almost always gets their attention
and reprograms their thinking about "organ music."  This is but one
example.  Whenever my tip glass looked lean I played Pink Floyd's
"The Wall" at Pizza and Pipes; the dollars rolled in.  (Incidentally,
many pop tunes of today tend to sound bland on the piano but transfer
remarkably well to the organ.)

A couple years back at the Ocean Shores Band Organ Rally there was
a pedal pumper the public could play themselves.  The late and loved
Amican Carl Kehret took charge of demonstrating and guiding "newbies"
on the operation of the player, mostly kids.  Every tune they selected
was generally a QRS 10-prefix roll.  This is a good lesson for the
rest of us that hope to see a future in preserving mechanical music.
Given a choice between a roll that someone knows and a collection of
unfamiliar titles, you can bet the person is going to choose the most
familiar title.  Disney tunes almost never fail to please.

I'm not on the edge of my piano bench waiting for the next Garth Brooks
Duo-Art release; I'm just hoping to see enough new music being punched
to entice the next generation into appreciating the historical value of
the old machinery and tunes.  They won't if they aren't aware of it to
begin with and definitely won't if you insist on cramming it down their
throats!  The above written from much experience on the subject,

Eric J. Shoemaker