Almost every '80s movie has some honking saxophone music droning through its sentimental segue scenes. This one had the stupid character play it too. Why was this instrument considered so cool in the 80s? (Ok, it's a great instrument as part of a jazz ensemble, but it was soooo overused as a solo instrument as background music in 80s films.)
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toh devres tseb hsid a si msacras
Let the poor American's have one invention that isn't British.
They only have the Big Mac, serial killers, morbid obesity and the sax - then had to invent the awful jazz music for it to fit in too.
...The self-pity sax music throughout Lethal Weapon is the worst, albeit hilarious.
You think jazz is awful? That right there discredits anything you've said or might ever say in the future. You're either too young to get it, immature or just don't have very much life experience. Go listen to some Miles, Coltrane and Monk. Get out of your little Bieber box and experience the world outside. There's many different kinds of good music to listen to. You just have to open yourself up to it and go find it.
share"You think jazz is awful? That right there discredits anything you've said or might ever say in the future."
Thank you.
Exactly. Had someone who is in their 20's tell me (and quite proudly) that she doesn't listen to anything pre-1990. And she thought that was a good thing. Course she is all of 23. Shudder to think the silly things I said at that age.
shareWell, most of the "smooth jazz" that was just becoming more popular in the 80s was pretty bad. That was a whole different thing than the greats that you mentioned.
Also, I think that part of the rise of the sax in the 80s was related to the "roots rock" movement. The rock bands whose work was more directly influenced by the R&B and rock-a-billy of the 1950s than the more heavily "produced" portions of the 1970s mainstream rock scene. Springsteen (with The Big Man prominently featured) had been something of a 70s precursor of that.
Well, most of the "smooth jazz" that was just becoming more popular in the 80s was pretty bad. That was a whole different thing than the greats that you mentioned.
I think a lot of reinterest in jazz and the sax might've been started by this song:
https://youtu.be/x-Yi762sQTo
England had the first celebrity serial killer, Jack the Ripper. Tho they existed long before 1492.
shareI don't know about an '80s obsession with the saxophone.
I think Joel Schumacher has an obsession with the saxophone. Schumacher wrote and directed "St. Elmo's Fire" He also directed the 1987 movie "The Lost Boys". And that movie featured a saxophone performance by muscular musician Tim Cappello.
The saxophone was considered very cool in the 80's. There is really nothing to understand. It's a great instrument, and a very cool instrument to boot. It was just very much in style in the 80's. I started playing the saxophone in '87 thinking it was super cool. I remember Bill Clinton in the early 90's playing his sax with his black sunglasses and he looked like the coolest president ever.
Like almost everything else that gets popular, it's overuse can often end up making something truly cool look ridiculous.
6-7 years ago, everything vampire was cool, now you look back and it's a joke. Right now zombies are the in thing, but I think they have jumped the shark as well. There will always be fads that take something cool and run it into the ground until it's embarrassing.
A lot of 80's songs incorporated the sax as well and many had great sax solos - Hazel O'Connor, Will You. Wham!, Careless Whisper. T'pau, China in your hand, Phil Collins, One More Night. Spandau Ballet, True. Being a fan of the sax and 80's music, this is great for me. It's as if the sax was made for 80's pop music, along side smooth jazz.
"we're in the stickiest situation since Sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky bun."
This is so weird. The other day, I was thinking that saxaphone players must have went hungry in the 90s.
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Nothing wrong with a little sax :)
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