Barbary Coast and Beyond was an amazing display of musical diversity: classical, marches, marimba, banjo, national anthem medleys, musical saw, opera, and a piece that was writ
The key here is whether your child (or whoever is playing) is a beginner, a casual player, just trying the instrument out, or is really into it and is seriously expressing herself/ himself through the instrument. You should rent an instrument for the beginner/ casual player and buy one for the serious player.
Electronic keyboards have a wide range of uses. They are portable, they can be hooked up, via an industry-standard MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) to a computer for composition, recording, and signal-processing.