When talking about upright pianos, upright player pianos, reed organs,
etc., I can only try my best to get people to appreciate and understand
what a great thing they have (or could have).  Some of my friends who
are young and don't really like classical music, ragtime, and old-time
jazz still say that they do like the sound of upright pianos!  (So do
the ones who do like ragtime, classical music, etc.)

Horrors!  Could it be that they are playing some form of unspeakable
"piano rock", "indie pop", "video game music", or even "R&B" on these
pianos?

That's another thing too -- people have their own musical preferences
and it is good to respect these if you want them to listen to you and
perhaps give thought to acquiring one of these things.  You may not
like what they like, but don't just sit there and not start trashing
what they like to listen to, or they will walk off and not want to hear
anything else you say.  You don't have to pretend you like what they
like, but just skirt around the subject (or agree that you disagree on
this subject) and move on to the main thing.

As a young(er) person, I am constantly infuriated by the "future of
mechanical music" posts I see on here, which lament the "lack of
interest" in self-playing instruments and furthermore go on to some
sob story about the perceived 'poor quality' of contemporary music,
etc., etc.

Most of the people who write these posts seem to be older, more
sheltered, and usually fixed and inflexible in their musical tastes.
They have no desire to simply get on YouTube or Wikipedia and bother
to find out more about the cornucopia of current-day musical tastes and
instead thus restrict their writings to the stuff they've had to endure
against their own wishes, such as gangsta rap, industrial, heavy metal,
and hardcore rock, which are only a small part of the innumerable
varieties of music around today.

These are only particularly apparent to people because they happen to
be unduly emphasized by being blasted out of car windows, used as
background at construction sites, etc., because (to paraphrase an
enlightened MMDer), the "cretins" who listen to this kind of music are
usually the type who want to blast recordings of it regardless of the
wishes of others, whereas most people who listen to other modern forms
of music, tend to do so at a reasonable volume (not counting rock
shows) and thus are not normally heard by those who do not seek out
that music.

There are so many styles, genres, sub-genres, and sub-sub-genres that
I could not even begin to name them all.  Many of them are reasonably
piano-friendly (they at least use a piano for color in background
parts, and sometimes as a solo or integral instrument).

A surprising number of popular current-day artists play piano!  Names?
I can name Regina Spektor, Ben Folds, and Sara Bareilles, among others.
Coldplay and Radiohead have used piano (or at least keyboards) for
color on some of their songs.  The virtuoso Martin Leung takes
video-game music and adapts it for solo piano!  Maybe you don't like
their music, but you can't deny that they like the piano and are using
it a lot.

It is true the guitar happens to be more popular, mainly because it is
much smaller and more portable (and, with the right equipment, electric
guitars can make a surprising variety of sounds).  Guitars can also do
certain things, such as slides, bends, etc., that acoustic pianos and
organs simply can't!  However, this is not to unduly praise the guitar;
both pianos and guitars should and do have a place in current-day
western music, regardless of what kind of music or when it was written.

Some of the people on here have no idea how to approach a younger,
creative musician who is interested in using some automatic instrument
part of their composing/recording interests.

Unfortunately, there seems to be some kind of stereotype, at least in
the U.S.A., that automatic musical instruments are to be used only for
cheap, nostalgic arrangements of old-time war-horse songs, to evoke a
certain "scene" (think "carnival" or "saloon"), or experimental atonal
modern "classical" music, designed to test the limits of both the
equipment and the listener!

In reality, it would be great if people could realize not only the
musical genius inherent in some of the real authentic old-time
arrangements, but also the musical potential of these things to
supplement their own performances on recordings.  A very few modern-day
musicians have managed to do great (or at least interesting) things
using automatic musical instruments, either as enthusiasts themselves,
or with the help of  sympathetic enthusiasts.  Notable are the use
of a Wurlitzer band organ by John Linnell of They Might Be Giants
(assisted by owner Bob Stuhmer), and also the modern compositions
by George Bogatko, etc.

If you are going to introduce someone to a new kind of music, or
musical instrument, you can not start out by talking trash on their
favorite things or they will not listen.  You must be nice and just let
them like what they like, and try your best to connect to get them to
find for themselves what is great in what you like.

Andrew Barrett