So not too long ago, I got a gig in a bar that I came to thinking it was a restaurant. My fault, obviously (although the person who booked me didn't bother to listen to my demo), and I did my best to salvage the situation with a radical revamp of my playlist. Anyway, since so many of you are experienced musicians - something I'm not - and have probably done the bar thing before, I had a couple of questions:

1. What is the point of bar music? From what I can tell, the people in a bar are there to drink and watch "the game," and yet the owner wants you to play upbeat stuff that they're clearly not listening to, really loud. As far as I can tell, the only point of this is to provide enough background noise that the patrons have to shout at each other and the staff. I don't get it - why go someplace to drink, watch the game, and shout at people?

2. Okay, I understand that people want to hear upbeat, familiar stuff. But in a given setlist, in your opinion, what is the minimum amount of Jimmy Buffett, Tom Petty, CCR, Skynyrd, etc. relative to music I like (trad/blues/60s "folk") that I can get away with? Or is this the wrong attitude to take? Is there some perspective I can adopt that will allow me to see a different reason to play in a bar besides the money and the sheer number of bars?

I really appreciate any light any of you can shed on this.

Jeremy