When I was growing up it seemed as though most the kids my age were taking piano lessons. As I reached my teen-age years I realized that wasn't quite true, but still, a much larger percentage of kids used to take piano lessons than is true today.
I don't know the reason for that, but I suspect it was because we didn't have a million options -- very few families had TV, and of course that was way before the days of the internet and electronic games.
Taking music lessons of some kind was a real benefit to all of us back then, even if we didn't follow through, because it gave us a certain discipline we needed.