The Saxophones

Whatever happened to the saxophones?

Remember when movies in the 80's always seemed to have these soundtracks with an instrumental saxophone theme in the background of certain scenes? It usually was played during an emotional exchange of dialogue. Or it was used during a montage with no dialogue that usually found certain characters exploring or finding themselves.

I was watching "The Secret of My Success" this morning, one of my Michael J. Fox favorites. This movie is a perfect example of the saxophone use. You also may want to try "St. Elmo's Fire". This one actually had a character who played the sax.

It dawned on me that movies these days don't have the saxophones playing in the background anymore. I noticed that there really is not any of this cheesiness in movies anymore. I guess they realized it was corny. It's funny to me how no one thought it was corny back then though.

I think the saxes added a little more emotion to the scenes and made you care just a tad bit more about what was going on, which is what I think they were going for. Maybe I just miss them because they take me back to a simpler time when movies were allowed to be cheesy.

I know these days we have all this digital technology and special effects capability that far surpasses anything of films in the 1980's, but still, I kind of miss the saxophones.

D