Took the kids to see Monsters v. Aliens this weekend, and it's funny. There's a great sequence when the President (played by Stephen Colbert) ascends a giant staircase to address an alien spaceship. Built into his presidential podium is a Yamaha DX7--very clearly identified as such; in fact, the machine is rendered in loving detail with many close ups of the buttons.
President/Colbert begins fumbling with the melody used to communicate with aliens at Devil's Tower in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (be botches it); and then goes right into the funny "Axel F" melody from Beverly Hills Cop. Both of these gags are references to a funny popcult thing--the fact that most everybody who gets near an electronic keyboard attempts to noodle out these melodies (I recall a stupid episode of Friends when a flashback shows Ross playing "Axel F" on his Casio).
[as noted here, however, the DX7 did not have preset drum patterns--they made fun of it as though it were an old Casio! This blog author hates the DX7; it's not a cool, retro synth, but it certainly was a roadworthy bar band tool.]
At any rate, the DX7 sequence in Monsters v. Aliens was really cool. And, on the serious side, that was a major piece of 1980s gear--cheap enough for most folks to use in a band setting. It might be the most deployed synth in history. I was in 3 bands where the DX7 was a mainstay.
President/Colbert begins fumbling with the melody used to communicate with aliens at Devil's Tower in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (be botches it); and then goes right into the funny "Axel F" melody from Beverly Hills Cop. Both of these gags are references to a funny popcult thing--the fact that most everybody who gets near an electronic keyboard attempts to noodle out these melodies (I recall a stupid episode of Friends when a flashback shows Ross playing "Axel F" on his Casio).
[as noted here, however, the DX7 did not have preset drum patterns--they made fun of it as though it were an old Casio! This blog author hates the DX7; it's not a cool, retro synth, but it certainly was a roadworthy bar band tool.]
At any rate, the DX7 sequence in Monsters v. Aliens was really cool. And, on the serious side, that was a major piece of 1980s gear--cheap enough for most folks to use in a band setting. It might be the most deployed synth in history. I was in 3 bands where the DX7 was a mainstay.
No comments:
Post a Comment