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When they were releasing albums like Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1977), AC DC would have seemed like an unlikely candidate to become one of the best-selling pop music acts of all time. But over the course of the next few decades, that’s exactly what these australian rock godsand not keeping pace with changes in musical fashion, but firmly holding on to a musical style and business strategy that have helped the group stand the test of time.
With a loud sound and you now recognize that influenced almost all heavy metal music that followed, AC/DC quickly gained a loyal following among hard rock audiences in the mid-to-late 1970s.
It was “You Shook Me All Night Long” which first hinted at its main appeal, was the lead single from what would turn out to be the biggest album in AC/DC history, Back In Black (1980).
His previous release, Highway To Hell(1979) had been the group’s first to land on the US album charts., but the group’s planned follow-up was compromised by the March 1980 death of lead singer Bon Scott, who choked on his own vomit during a bout of heavy drinking.
with the new singer Brian JohnsonInstalled just two months later, the group formed in the early 1970s by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young recorded Back In Black in the summer of 1980.
The album would spend a solid year on the US album charts, a second Top 40 hit in the form of its title track and a sports stadium anthem in the form of “Hells Bells” and eventually selling over 20 million copies worldwide.
AC DC I would never have another single as popular like “You Shook Me All Night Long,” but the group’s continued ability to sell full-length rock albums, even in an era where digital downloads have decimated album sales across all genres, is utterly unparalleled. .
The group’s commercial success is due, in part, to its refusal to allow their song catalog to be cannibalized and repackaged into compilation albums.
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