It has come to my attention from various sources that there is a saxophone epidemic on our hands. I think the interesting thing about it is that the saxophone has always played an odd role in pop music. You have your Kenny G., the late Clarence Clemons (of Bruce Springstein’s outfit), INXS’s Kirk Pengilly and a slew of other sunglass-wearing guys swaying in the background waiting for their time in the spotlight. I never really thought the saxophone was consider cool in rock and hip-hop but somehow it creeps in there from time to time. Is it making a comeback?
So I can’t decipher if today’s artists are using this instrument ironically in their music or not (I’m guessing a yes for Macklemore).
Let’s have a listen to some saxophone soundalikes:
(note: one of the producers on “Problem” is Max Martin. He has made numerous appearances on this site)
Some similarities here as well:
In a previous post I compared Macklemore vs. Le1f
I thought it was fitting to bring The Beastie Boys into the mix. Their song “Brass Monkey” features a sample from Wild Sugar. I included them both here:
And finally in I thought there was a hint of the melody and rhythm of C&C Music Factory’s famous track in Grande’s riff.
Attention! If you want to listen to 10 hours of THE MOST EPIC SAX OF ALL
then hop over to
Also worth checking out:
“The 25 most awesome saxophone songs of all time” at DeathAndTaxes
I can also hear the riff from Ain’t No Sunshine (1971) in Problem, just sped up.
Also, if you’re interested in the history of the saxophone, it was originally used for marching bands, I think, before classical composers used it. It then began to be used by jazz musicians, and from what I’ve read, Louis Jordan, who made use of sax, invented Jump Blues by combining Jazz and Blues and by the late 1940s, this developed into rhythm and blues, which was then combined with country and to a lesser extent gospel and boogie woogie to form rock ‘n’ roll, but it may be more correct to say R&B and rock ‘n’ roll developed together, because there are over 50 different candidates for the first rock ‘n’ roll song, ranging from 1929-1951.
Saxes could be found in early rock ‘n’ roll songs and Supertramp used it in the ’70s on songs such as The Logical Song (1979), which may have in part been due to the revival of classic rock ‘n’ roll by bands such as Creedence, who used it in the background on songs such as Travelin’ Band (1970), but gave it a solo on songs such as Long As I Can See the Light (1970) and John Fogerty also used it his solo career. All this before INXS and then they inspired another Aussie band, The Models, to use sax. Saxes are also an important part of a soul band and from there into funk, invented by the great James Brown and maybe into hip hop.
Pop I don’t know about, but during the Jazz Age it borrowed from Jazz, as it always borrows from the popular style of the era, which is probably why it is still popular, and from rock ‘n’ roll by the ’70s, probably partially to keep it relevant and partially because the new pop stars grew up listening to rock ‘n’ roll and liked it, then from disco in the late ’70s and ’80s and now hip hop (or is that contempory r’n’b and not pop).
And I forgot to mention that the reason sax was used in Jazz was that the Jazz clubs were getting bigger and in the days before amplification, the violins could be heard throughout the club and saxophone, surprisingly, was the closest instrument in terms of sound. If you ask me, it’s a bit of a ‘Straits of Massachusetts’ closeness and if you’ve seen Family Ties, you’ll know what I’m talking about. One more thing, Redfoo’s new single, New Thang, also uses sax and as bad as he is, when you put all of these songs together, you do get the impression of a trend, but maybe that’s only because we’re not thinking about the songs which don’t have a sax featured.
Battle of The Saxes!
Are you a father Keith?
Hehe. No, not at the moment.
Taylor Swift – Shake it Off vs. Avril Lavigne – The Best Damn Thing
[Note that: Shake it Off uses saxophone, and has also been compared to Thrift Shop & Pharrell’s Happy].