[OC] What Happened to the Saxophone in Pop Songs?

Posted by noisymortimer

25 comments
  1. Sax doesn’t sound good when sampled – and modern producers are too cheap to actually pay for musicians…

  2. What were the songs with a sax in the 10s? All I can think of is that one Katy Perry song. 

    Edit: I think people are forgetting this is about Billboard #1s which is a US based chart. So most of the replies aren’t really correct. 

  3. In 1981, pop sax peaked with Urgent by Foreigner. It was so gnarly that other bands kept trying for a bit, but eventually just gave up.

    Edit: I know it never hit number 1 pop, but it still shook the world and changed the course of history.

  4. Skill issue. Sax is really hard to play and master. Electronic Sax sounds bad. Really Sax players are expensive to hire, because it’s hard to play. Solution: just not putting Sax in music at all.

  5. I do miss all the unprotected sax of the early 80s.

  6. Now I know why the 1975 are the 1975– John Waugh for the win

  7. Romanian Popcorn/Romanian 2010s House has a decent amount of sax

  8. Who else has Baker Street stuck in their head right now?

  9. Clarence Clemmons.

    Springsteen was at his most popular in the seventies and eighties. Everyone wanted his sound and a large part of that was the E Street Band.

    But Bruce broke up the E Street Band after the Tunnel of Love tour, and of course grunge/alternative wasn’t melody/solo driven in the same way as what came before so interest died off.

    Then Clarence Clemmons’ death in 2009 caused a lot of people to reflect on his life’s work which reintroduced people to saxophone solos and brought about a resurgence of interest in the sound. It lasted about five years.

    That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Even though I made the story to fit the data and have no proof either way. Did it really happen that way? I don’t know, but as a Springsteen fan I have to say it would be cool if it did.

  10. Who cares we can blast Baker Street at any time we want

  11. In 1992, President Clinton played the saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show. There was initial excitement that the president seemed so cool but I think the clip aged like milk and people cringed at the video a few years later.

  12. Yes! Where are all the Sax solos?! The 1975 band have a dedicated Sax player and their live shows give a lot of space for the saxophonist to shine. Their live album in Apple Music at the moment is very good for sax middle 8s; highly recommend.

  13. At the end of the Fires of St Elmo movie the main character jumped on a bus to make a career in NYC as a sax player. Ironic.

  14. Sax expertise requires years of practice, then jobs are quite limited, people have families and need to pay rent and bills.

    There’s not enough money in sax these days.

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