I consider music pins to be almost unlicensed themes. I don't really like Metallica too much, not enough to spend thousands of dollars on a pinball machine themed about them... but OMFG, the freaking game is amazing. I don't have a single Metallica song on mine, and I just love playing it. AC/DC? Aerosmith? Pretty much the same deal. I don't care about the theme at all, but I really enjoy playing the games.

I was a big fan of Munster's, and excited when Stern announced it. But then I played it, and every bit of excitement evaporated.

Theme is there to allow the game to get made. Stern isn't going to build games they can't sell. No matter how good a game is, it needs the theme to get it out of the gate. The only exception to this is when manufacturers are intentionally doing an unlicensed game to get us hard core pinheads. But really it is all about pre-orders, and those are based by theme.