Title: The Day Ludwig Went Pop
Category: Games » Mario
Author: C. Mechayoshi
Language: English, Rating: Rated: K+
Genre: Friendship/Family
Published: 04-12-17, Updated: 04-12-17
Chapters: 1, Words: 4,077

Summary: For the master composer, Ludwig Von Koopa, concerts are a way of life. But what about pop concerts? How will his friends and family take it? For music lovers.

Disclaimer: Mario and co. Belong to Nintendo. All featured songs belong to their respective artists.

Author note: This is a one shot rewrite/ reimagining of Rhapsody est Vendere, a story I thought I had a great premise but failed somewhat execution wise. I feel my writing has gotten a bit better since then and it now deserves a second shot. Besides, music is something of a personal hobby of mine, so this premise had special meaning to me. Enjoy.

Ludwig Von Koopa was five years old when he took stage at the elementary talent show. With more than two years of playing experience under his belt by this point he knew the medal would be soon be in the palm of his childish hands. The medal wasn't really important. He had a drawer full of them by this point. Instead, he had caught wind that the famous musical instructor, Nadia Koolanger would be present. He also knew that getting her approval could change his life.

After his predictable win, and the groans of many other children, Ludwig awaited his prize. His rendition of Beethoven's Für Elise blew away his contemporaries singing "Twinkle Twinkle: Little Star" or juggling. After the uproar of either adoration or annoyance, Ludwig was given his medal. Despite his best attempt at a straight face, Ludwig couldn't help but to grin as he left the stage. As the rounded the corner, someone called out for him.

"Monsieur Ludiwg! Congratulations," Nadia Koolanger said in her thick French accent.

Ludwig had no response to that for private reasons. His uncle Albert Koopa had been the one who took him to the show. And took him to school. And everything else. Nadia chuckled warmly, realizing that this was a "quiet" one.

"What is wrong, monsieur? Do you not want to go to the best music school in all of the land?'

"So now you have a voice!" She jest, "Tell you what, you show your papa and mama this and maybe you can come." She handed Ludwig some papers for acceptation. "You will love it, I promise you," she said as Albert Koopa came backstage. Nadia quickly left the scene.

Albert raised his nephew up. "Great job, Ludwig! Vhat is that?" He asked, noticing the papers.

Ludwig burst though the door. Iggy, Lemmy, and Wendy froze with their mouths still wide open as the radio continued to play. They had been singing along and using the cool new wireless microphone system Bowser had installed.

"The music room is for playing actual instruments, NOT singing to the radio. Besides, you have been here for your allotted time. Go away."

Ludwig sat down at the piano, put up his sheet music and immediately started to play a tune. Wendy and Lemmy groaned and left the room with the radio but Iggy stayed behind. Something had caught his attention.

"Hey Luddy?" he asked. Ludwig continued to play. His tune was busy but catchy, almost in a way that you might hear a song on the radio. But that's ridiculous, Iggy thought, Ludwig would never play anything local radio stations would touch...right?

"Luddy?" Iggy asked, stepping closer. Then he caught sight of the sheet music; it was a complicated thing. Iggy knew enough about music to know that that many sixteenths on the treble and bass clef couldn't be easy to play, but there was one other thing. It was labeled : Black Eyed Peas!

Then it hit him. He was playing a (admittedly complex) piano rendition of "Let's get it started"!

"Luddy?! Are you playing something that isn't over a hundred years old? Aka POP?!"

"Luddy, stay with me! Are you sick? Are you not feeling well? Tell me!" Iggy said, shaking him.

"I am fine. Stop! Actually I am playing some 'modern easy listening dance contemporary' today. Why do you ask?"

"Oookay then. Heh heh!" Iggy winked. Needless to say, most of Ludwig's hired singers were female and foreign. Iggy knew his 'type' basically. Ludwig ignored this and continued to play, though Iggy could swear he played with a little less confidence now.

Later that day, the Bowser family was having dinner. Bowser and Bowser Junior sat at the ends of the table. To one side was Ludwig, Iggy, Wendy, and Lemmy, and the other Morton, Roy, Larry, and Kamek. As everyone enjoyed their meal, Ludwig coughed for everyone's attention.

"Thank you, father. Now, tonight I would like to host a concert in this very castle!" Ludwig said enthusiastically. Everyone stared at him.

"Yeah, you host a 'concert' every other week and most of the audience is your weird music college friends or us!" Junior griped.

"Ah, but this is different! I want you all to attend. I feel that you will all enjoy this concert." Everyone except Iggy groaned.

"No, dinosaur music sounds like it would be like, cool! Kookie's music is more like...skeleton music!" Lemmy clarified.

Larry shook his head. "Umm. No pal, that still sounds cool, ya know? More like...sleepcore! Yeah, that's a good name."

Bowser gave it some thought. "Hmm. Well I have a tennis match scheduled with Mario and his loser friends later on, so sorry..."

"With ya all the way, Luddy!" Iggy said with a smirk. The rest of the Koopalings mumbed something about how they didn't really have anything going on and would probably show up.

Ludwig's face lit up. "Wonderful! I promise you will like it, but I have one other request."

Ludwig jumped for joy. In his mind, that was. He hadn't seen his only known relative in a while and he was especially eager to let him hear the kind of music he would be playing in this very special concert. The rest of the meal time was uneventful, aside from the fact that Kamek accidentally revealed that he was once in a punk band. This resulted in a laugh from everyone.

Ludwig hit play on his MacBook. The preprogrammed intro started to play and he got ready for the opening solo on his digital synthesizer. Just then the concert hall door creaked open and Iggy's head peaked though. Ludwig didn't notice, until he saw Sasha waving at someone in the back.

Ludwig hit pause. "Are you so sure of that? This will be nothing from my usual discography."

Iggy walked up to him causally. "It sure won't! Why? Because it will be POP music!"

"I should be asking you the questions! Why are you doing this? You would never touch that stuff!"

Ludwig got up and suddenly addressed Sasha. "Umm, we are taking a break. Come back in thirty minutes, okay?" She complied with a look of confusion and left the room. Ludwig then turned to Iggy.

Iggy crossed his arms. "Okay then. After all, it's only your reputation on the line."

Ludwig's face softened. "Well, you are not wrong. It is on the line, but you see, I am going to change everyone's mind with the songs I have prepared for tonight!"

"Okay? Did ya accidentally listen to pop only to realize ya liked it?" When Iggy asked this Ludwig gave him a surprised look. "*Gasp* OMG, was I right?"

Ludwig breathed deeply. "Okay fine! I will be honest with you... You remember when Kind Dad had us invade those fortresses a month ago?"

"The fortress I invaded had a radio blasting though the speaker system in every room and I could not cut if off. It was the 'Golden Oldies' station and I was forced to listen to it for hours until Mario showed up."

"Oh, it was...until I realized that I was tapping my foot to most of the songs!" Ludwig said like it was supposed to sound dreadful. Iggy laughed. "What is funny about that? The music took control of my mind and soul and I could not do a thing about it!"

Ludwig pouted. "Yes it is, but I did learn something from that. Fun easy listening music does not have to be brainless. The genre was not completely garbage like I thought!"

"Yes, and more! My kind of pop music will transcend the the barriers of traditional musicianship. Yes, I will abandon commercialism all together for the sake of making something more rich, more substantial for the truest listeners of the art called music!"

Iggy yawned. "So that's why you host free concerts? I thought it was because no one would bother to pay you! I totally wanna see what your friends think about this," Iggy said mischievously.

Ludwig shot him a nasty look. "This is surprise to them actually, so don't you reveal a thing. I do have a reputation as you mentioned before. Hopefully though, this concert open the eyes of them and everyone else!"

"And then you can be loud and proud about your new love of pop? Got it!" Iggy laughed.

"Yeah right. You will be known as the creator of 'Intelligent Pop Music' and we'll call it IPM for short."

Ludwig was about to stop him until he realized that that was actually a good name for a new genre. "Iggy?" he said finally, "You have just said the smartest thing I've heard all day! Aside from my own words, of course."

Iggy made his way back to the door. "Well okay then...I'll let your date with your singer continue."

Five college students approached Bowser's Castle, immediately being stopped by the guards.

"Who are you hipsters?" A Koopatrol questioned. The Elite Koopatrol next to him rolled his eyes.

"Dude, if we have visitors it's either Mario or people Ludwig has dragged to one of his horrid concerts."

"Yes sir. We would happen to be fellow musicians of Ludwig Von Koopa," one of the people, a monocle and suit wearing Koopa answered.

"Fellow musicians?" The Koopatrol asked, "From where? The street corner where Ludwig performs for spare change?" Both of the guards laughed.

The cowboy hat wearing Piranha Plant gasped. "Have ya'll got no respect for music?"

"Yeah, maaaan let us through orrrrr we'll call the cops!" The denim jacket and bandana wearing Goomba slurred.

The female Noki looked towards him worriedly. "I don't think you of all people would want the cops here. They might search you!" She adjusted her expensive looking hat. "Our friend has told us he worked very hard for this concert. You wouldn't want us complaining to King Bowser, would you?" She sternly warned.

Both of the guards looked at each other then the Elite Koopatrol spoke. "Sure, come on in. Listen to your 'sleepcore' as Prince Larry is now calling it I heard."

The Magikoopa wearing a "Meshuggah" sweat shirt got excited after he said this. "Ludwig is into the hardcore scene now? Wow!" He went in ahead of the others. The Koopa gave the guards an apologizing look and lead the remaining friends in.

Inside of Bowser's Castle, business was mostly as usual. Ludwig's performances were a regular thing and more of an annoyance to the castle staff than entertainment. Eventually Bowser stopped making attendance mandatory and from that moment on, Ludwig would be fortunate to perform for twenty people. Still, he treated each performance as if it was in front of twenty thousand and anything less would be against his personal motto.

Ludwig peeked outside the curtains. He spotted the Koopalings and Junior in the front row, looking bored and playing around on their phones. In the next row he saw a few castle servants and guards who were there just to escape doing their duty for an hour or so. Bowser was absent, which he expected, but not seeing his dear uncle yet brought his spirits down. This feeling was soon turned into nervous anticipation as he spotted his friends form Music Park college walking down the hall. Only five had made it, but they were his closest friends anyway.

First was Johann, a Koopa who specialized in classical music much like Ludwig and was a snappy dresser to boot. They had been friends since meeting each other in the music school Ludwig was accepted in while very young . Next was Petey Cash, a Piranha Plant country musician, whom Ludwig had met in his bluegrass studies. Behind him the goomba named Kurt, the grunge musician who wowed Ludwig with the way he could portray emotion through a down tuned guitar. He stumbled down the hall in his usual way as his girlfriend Maria stood close. The Noki was an violinist and childhood friend of Ludwig and Johann. Lastly, Fredrik, a metalhead Magikoopa took the rear. The polyrhythms he'd come up with on the guitar could make even Ludwig's head spin. Despite varying genres all of these musicians preferred, they had something in common with Ludwig, or used to. They all hated pop!

Ludwig wiped the sweat from his brow. How would they react to this? The clock struck eight o'clock. It was time for the show to go on! He took a deep breath, made sure his tuxedo looked well, and walked through the curtains.

Sasha sung her heart out for the final song. Her rigid classical training did not prevent her from grooving along and having a blast doing it. The Koopalings where all over this. They couldn't believe they were hearing special renditions of their favorite pop songs, of course with Ludwig's signature complex melodies being played on top from his Roland Synthesizer. Even Iggy, who was in the know, was surprised that Ludwig still sounded like himself while covering such unconventional (for him) music. The castle workers were pleased too, it was like an concert they'd actually want to sit though!

For Ludwig's five friends however, things got weird. Ludwig had told them on the phone that it would be different than usual. They had guessed among each other that this might be yet another one of his highly experimental avant-garde concerts, not that they would be subject to hits from the Black Eyed Peas, Pink, Christina Aguilera, and Lady Gaga!

At first they thought it was a joke! Fredrik even threatened to leave. Johann considered it but didn't want to walk out on a friend. Then he noticed that his foot was tapping to the music. Soon after Maria realized she was doing it too. Before they knew it, they were all unconsciously moving to the music. It had took control of their minds and souls and at the end, they clapped just as hard as everyone else.

"Thank you, thank you!" Ludwig said to his audience. Upon scanning it again, he saw someone seated way in the back. Uncle Albert was there, clapping whole heartedly. As the crowd started to disperse, Ludwig jumped off stage to meet him.

"I am too, Ludwig. Life has been very busy, but I did my best to make it. I tell you, this was one of your best concerts!"

Ludwig was taken back. "You really think this, onkel? I was just wanting to do something different and-"

"It is very good to try something new, do you agree? After all, I've heard you perform Beethoven pieces for twenty or so years!"

"Heh heh...yeah." When Ludwig thought about it, his uncle was right. He'd developed his technicality and dexterity through repetition, and that repetition has snuck into his song choices.

"I must go now. How is it here? Do they treat you well?" Albert asked seriously.

"Yes Onkel. My step-father is okay... My siblings are certainly entertaining at least, but you know King Dad has had a biological son now, right?"

"Yes, I heard. I will see you again soon, okay? Auf Wiedersehen!" Albert said leaving.

"Auf Wiedersehen," Ludwig said quietly as he watched his uncle leave. Then he heard lots of footsteps behind him. He turned around to see his five friends all looking at him with confusion in their faces. Ludwig had forgotten about them at the moment. How how would they react?

"Well well, my old friend," Johann said, breaking the ice, "That WAS certainly unconventional...but in a way I'd thought I'd never hear from you!"

"Heeey buddy? Whatcha doing playyying that top 40 nonsense?" Kurt teased. Maria nudged him harshly.

"But it isn't pop!" Ludwig exclaimed as if he knew what he was saying. Then he suddenly remembered Iggy from before. "It is something new. It is...IPM!"

"IPM? I've never heard of that. And I do know about every genre ever, especially if it's metal related." Fredrik said with some smugness.

"Yes it is! Very new. Turn of the century or such nonsense! Do any of you know what it stands for?" Ludwig asked the group. Their blank looks revealed that they didn't. Ludwig now saw that he could trap them. "Well, did you enjoy it?" he asked innocently.

"Yes I did, old chap. In fact, i hadn't had such a lively experience in a good while!" Johann said sentimentally. The rest nodded in agreement.

Ludwig was inwardly ecstatic. His lovable but sometimes pretentious friends were falling for his trap. Now it was time to reel it in. "So you guys are a fan of my new IPM?"

Ludwig wished he could have taken a picture of the look on their faces. His friends simultaneously gasped in shock. They had just praised and enjoyed pop music! Ludwig stood with a smirk before continuing.

"You see, I have learned that pop isn't bad, or it doesn't have to be. Yes, a large portion or so is indeed garbage, but we cannot judge the entire genre! Think of of the inaccurate ways people judge our music!"

His friends shifted uncomfortably as his words sunk in. Ludwig decided to bring the point home.

"Maria, you know that your beautiful instrument of choice, the violin, is fit for more than the orchestra, unlike what many say."

Maria slowly nodded. She'd been told this many times by music instructors every time she'd stray away from classical.

"And Petey? How many times have you heard that country music is just for old men? That the complexity stops after playing three chords on a guitar?"

"Or how many times have someone said that grunge and metal are nothing but loud angry teenager music?" Kurt and Fredrik had no choice but to agree.

Ludwig turned to Johann. "And I especially appeal to you. You and I share a preferred passion for classical and so we know what ignorance often comes with that."

Johann chuckled. "Heh! Being called old fashioned among other insults... It is rough being the only twenty year old in the orchestra!"

"And so you see," Ludwig continued, "We know there is more to our kinds of music so why can't this be the case for pop? It doesn't have to be lazy, simple, and auto tuned. It can be creative, exciting, and it can move your body and soul. I am not asking for us to become pop stars, but do you not agree?"

His friends stared at him for a moment. Ludwig was nervous again, had he lost them?

"Darn tootin! I've always wanted to learn about those fancy keyboards!" Petey added.

Fredrik pretended to think hard, though everyone could tell he was actually excited. "Maybe I could incorporate my two hand tapping licks into this. I would have to see what my band says, of course."

Johann suddenly remembered something. "Ah yes! We were going to treat you to drinks. After all, only the best of friends perform free concerts for you! Isn't that right, guys?" All of his friends smiled. Ludwig did too.

Ludwig burst through the door. Iggy, Lemmy, and Wendy froze with their mouths still open as the radio continued to play.

The three watched as Ludwig at down some sheet music at the piano. He looked back towards him with a smile. "I have heard that you guys are a fan group vocals. What if I asked you all to do some vocals for an upcoming concert? The song is- 'We are family'."

The three jumped in excitement at the prospect. They had a feeling that the would enjoy Ludwig's concerts a lot more from now on.

Author note: And so this is Rhapsody v.2. I went a completely different direction with this and I'm happier as a result. All of the OCs in this story aside from Albert Koopa are named after real musicians. Can you spot all of the references? Peace!