I know it seems like I am stating the obvious here, but it really is important that you learn what you enjoy listening to. Usually, if you thoroughly enjoy listening to a particular piece of music, you are going to enjoy learning it and playing it on the piano.
So many times we can get the message that we should be learning this, or we should be learning that. Sometimes the message is that you should learn popular music because it is much easier to learn, sometimes the message is that classical music is the only way to learn as it is ‘proper’ music and sometimes the message is to learn jazz music because it is so much more interesting and innovative. Truth be told is that they are all valid genres to play on the piano and the correct genre for you is the one that you really want to learn, which unsurprisingly is the type of music that you like listening to.
Everyone has an opinion and you could find no shortage of people, whether they play the piano or not, will try and tell you what you should be playing. The only opinion that truly matters is your own, even if no one else gets it.
Having said this, there can always be music that you have never heard before that after you have heard it just the once, you will want to learn to play. There is always more music that you have never heard before that you will absolutely love to play, so keep yourself open to learning something you might have never thought of learning to play before. I have many fond memories of my piano teachers playing me a new piece of music that they wanted me to learn and sometimes it would be a piece of music that I instantly liked and I was completely driven to learn.
As I have shared before, I learned classical piano and as a teenager, behind my teacher’s back, I would learn some modern music. I know that one of my piano teachers would never have approved of me doing so but the last one was actually quite happy for me to dabble in non classical music. Even though I went behind my teacher’s back, I certainly don’t regret doing so because dabbling in popular music added to my skill set and possibly even helped me become better at playing classical piano. Even though I appreciate a really wide selection of music, I’m quite content at this stage to stick with classical music. Maybe in the future I might choose differently.
As far as I’m concerned, it is really important to find out what style of piano playing is right for you and don’t allow anyone to dissuade you from following your own path. This is a really important factor in whether you will be successful at learning to play the piano, because if you are coerced into learning something different, you won’t be interested in practicing and therefore you won’t really develop any piano playing skills.