As someone who's a fan of music going back to the Baroque Era, I thought about one interesting tidbit regarding music in the 20th century.

If there's any instrument that I think is the quintessential musical instrument for the 20th century, I believe it's the saxophone.
The instrument started becoming popular in the early 20th century, as books for the saxophone started being published following inventor Adolphe Sax's death in 1894, and popular dance orchestras began using it. It's big heyday really started in the 1920s, starting with Coleman Hawkins in 1923. With the swing era of the 1930s, the bebop era of the 1940s, and the alto and tenor sax being popularized in the 1950s, the saxophone's heyday just continued on. Even in the 1960s and 1970s with the advent of the big musical revolution, the saxophone continued to be popular with the success of Motown and the soul and R&B movements. Hell, even in the 1980s and 1990s, you had a lot of adult contemporary pop music that used saxophone ballads, plus the instrument was used for the theme song of Roseanne, and who could forget Bill Clinton with his saxophone?
In these past two decades, however, the first two decades of the 21st Century, you now hardly hear anything with sax in it. There are a few exceptions, and you also had the Epic Sax Guy become a meme in this decade, but other than that, the 1990s seemed like the last decade when sax was a popular instrument in mainstream music.

Do you agree or disagree? Do you think the saxophone was the quintessential instrument of the 20th Century or was it a different one? Let me know in the comments.

Sax and guitar were the biggest instruments of the 20th century.

Mr. Saxobeat was 🔥

Chuck Berry
Scotty Moore
Les Paul
Bo Diddley
James Burton
Buddy Holly
Link Wray
Dick Dale
B.B. King
John Lee Hooker
Steve Cropper
George Harrison
John Lennon
Keith Richards
Dave Davies
Roger McGuinn
Pete Townshend
Jeff Beck
Jimi Hendrix
Jimmy Page
Frank Zappa
Robby Krieger
Carlos Santana
Glen Campbell
Jerry Garcia
Eric Clapton
Duane Allman
Dickey Betts
David Gilmour
Tony Iommi
Mick Taylor
Ritchie Blackmore
Joe Walsh
Peter Frampton
Brian May
Billy Gibbons
Alex Lifeson
Angus Young
Malcolm Young
Eddie Van Halen
Slash
The Edge
Prince
Randy Rhoads
Dimebag Darrell Abbott
Dave Mustaine
James Hetfield
Kirk Hammett
Steve Vai
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Kurt Cobain
Jack White
Dave Grohl

...were not saxophone players.

The saxophone is seldom heard in modern music these days, but back in the 80s, it was very well used and still my favourite part of any 80s song.

The 2011 Lady Gaga hit The Edge of Glory featured a nice throwback to the 80s with a sax solo played by the late Clarence Clemons, but my favourite (so far) this decade is the 2012 hit Burning by Mia Martina. 

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Saxophone in 80s music was always used in super cheesy manner. Horrid decade for Jazz too as most Jazz giants either moved away from the 70s fusion era to go straight into the much-maligned Smooth Jazz genre, or stopped entirely :P

I would probably go with the guitar as the instrument as it was already enough prevalant in Folk and Blues of the 1900s all the way to the Rock, Metal and ballady stuff of the 90s. The saxophone is more of a quintessential mid-20th century instrument to me.

Saxophone in 80s music was always used in super cheesy manner. Horrid decade for Jazz too as most Jazz giants either moved away from the 70s fusion era to go straight into the much-maligned Smooth Jazz genre, or stopped entirely :P

I would probably go with the guitar as the instrument as it was already enough prevalant in Folk and Blues of the 1900s all the way to the Rock, Metal and ballady stuff of the 90s. The saxophone is more of a quintessential mid-20th century instrument to me.


Just out of curiosity, do you consider this song to be cheesy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izGwDsrQ1eQ

Just out of curiosity, do you consider this song to be cheesy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izGwDsrQ1eQ
Most George Michael/Wham! stuff are pretty much cheesefests but this one is fine I guess. The sax part is fairly annoying, but I do like the chorus and the guitar chords.

Just out of curiosity, do you consider this song to be cheesy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izGwDsrQ1eQ


No, I love his music.

Think "Baker Street"!

Now it’s been mentioned I do have to agree. It was one of the elements that made the older music feel more heartfelt and more real to me.

I think it goes well with 20th century. Guitar, bass guitar, Hammond organ, etc were used a lot then but still are now. Not so much for the sax.

Now it’s been mentioned I do have to agree. It was one of the elements that made the older music feel more heartfelt and more real to me.

I think it goes well with 20th century. Guitar, bass guitar, Hammond organ, etc were used a lot then but still are now. Not so much for the sax.


We don't get a lot of the "real" instruments in today's music.

Um...

Kenny G.? His saxophone music was popular pretty much in the late 80s and 90s.