Historical Popularity

[ttf_baileyman]

Here's a word count program attached to Google Books, I think, searching for the phrase "trombone" and counting its frequency, smoothed over I think five years for clarity:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=trombone&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=5&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ctrombone%3B%2Cc0

I can't think of what was happening in 1980, but the general decline I understand pretty well. 

Try some of your own phrases.  This tool is cool. 

[ttf_SilverBone]

Cool tool.  Compare with "guitar" for a reference point.

[ttf_SilverBone]

Cool tool.  Compare with "guitar" for a reference point.