The future of mechanical music, like almost every other type, lies in
the niche audience.  Young people by and large won't support it, but
that statistical argument cuts out most of the older folks also, if
you want to get technical.  Henry Miller stated that even the Beatles
are "ancient history" to more than half of those alive today (having
broken up 44 years ago).  Do such generalizations help us predict the
fate of Beatles music?  Let me tell you a true story.

This past year one of my 12-year-old piano students came in wearing
His Beatles T-shirt - the third such T-shirt that month.  I said to
him, "That's a nice shirt.  How many Beatles T-shirts do you have?"
"Oh, I don't know," he said, "A lot."

I said, "Do you have T-shirts of any other groups?"  "No."

Pointing to the big '1964' on it, I said, "1964 was a very good
year for them.  That was the year they were on Ed Sullivan, isn't
it?"  (Now notice carefully what he said next:)  "Yes.  February
ninth."

Now friends, I don't know how many of our MMD readers have that date
memorized; I certainly did not.  But it turns out my student was even
more solid on his Beatles trivia than most of my friends in 1964 were.
He ate, slept and drank the Beatles.  (Six months later he took a right
turn and started eating and drinking the Chopin Preludes, but that is
another story.)

My high-school piano ensemble (called the Berks Piano Quartet; you can
see them on YouTube) includes one march or fox-trot in their music each
year.  A ballet dancer in the school took a liking to this, and I ended
up directing her to a batch of internet honky-tonk music.  That is the
point.  Every niche interest lives on, in the cell phone of every young
person everywhere.  The golden age is _now._

I myself am finally clearing up a lifetime of misconceptions about old
songs and machines, thanks to the internet.  I can see any orchestrion
ever made, no matter how obscure.  Even old performance styles (excess
rubato, etc.) that were laughed at in the 1960's are now treated as
just another part of the musical landscape by today's young people who
listen to the whole range of recordings on-line.  The golden age of
access to every kind of musical style and device is now.

My 24-year-old son wandered by as I was typing this, and we chatted for
a few moments about the prospect for carousels at amusement parks.  He
said "No, people are passionate about those parks.  There will still
be band organs, whatever it takes."

Many thanks to every one of you who continue to contribute to this
Digest, which is part of my reason to be confident about the future.

Jim Neher
Reading, Pennsylvania