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Revision as of 21:37, 29 March 2004 by UNIXCOFFEE928 (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)AC/DC is an Australian rock band considered pioneers of hard rock. The group was formed in Sydney, Australia in 1973.
Born in Scotland, the brothers Angus and Malcolm Young moved with their family to Australia as children. Malcolm began playing guitar first, soon followed by Angus. Malcolm first played with a band called "The Velvet Underground" (not the Lou Reed group). Their older brother George had some success with his band The Easybeats, and asked the boys to do some session work for a project he was doing. Angus then formed a band called "Tantrum". After The Velvet Underground, Malcolm decided to form a more pure rock and roll band, and enlisted Angus.
The name "AC/DC" (alternating current/direct current) was suggested by their sister Margaret after she read it on a vacuum cleaner label. The term has a bisexual connotation that they were apparently unaware of, and they often had to deny they were a gay band. Some have suggested that the name stood for "anti-Christ, devil child"; though this does not appear to be the case, the rumor has long persisted both among conservatives who, already disliking the band's image, use it to paint the band as Satanists, and among some fans who, especially in the 1980s, enjoyed the counter-cultural offense such a meaning would cause.
The early lineups were changed often, but the enlistment of Ronald "Bon" Scott as their driving frontman signified the beginning of real success.
In 1980, they were planning a new album called Back in Black when after a night of hard drinking, Bon Scott died from both choking on his own vomit and hypothermia (Ozzy Osbourne would later write and record a song about Scott's death, the widely misinterpreted "Suicide Solution"). Shortly after, the band brought in a new lead singer, Brian Johnson, and redid "Back In Black" virtually from scratch. This album became their biggest-selling album to date, a hard-rock landmark that would ultimately be named in tribute to Bon.
Over the next eight years, the Young brothers and Johnson wrote nearly all of their songs, but in 1990 Johnson was kicked out of the songwriting collaborations, leaving the Young brothers to carry on the creation of the group's music, with Angus Young as their leader and Johnson handling all overdubbed lead and background vocals.
AC/DC is generally divided into "Bon Scott era (1975-80)" and "Brian Johnson era (1980-present)". Some fans have a preference, but die-hard devotees point to the merits of both singers and appreciate them equally.
Check out the Video, "Let There Be Rock", to see the band racing a biplane in a Porsche 928!
Discography
- 1974 - High Voltage (Australia)
- 1975 - T.N.T. (Australia)
- 1976 - High Voltage
- 1976 - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (re-released in the U.S., 1981)
- 1977 - Let There Be Rock
- 1978 - Powerage
- 1978 - If You Want Blood (Live)
- 1979 - Highway to Hell
- 1980 - Back in Black
- 1981 - For Those About To Rock
- 1983 - Flick of the Switch
- 1984 - '74 Jailbreak (EP of old cuts)
- 1985 - Fly on the Wall
- 1986 - Who Made Who (soundtrack to the Stephen King movie 'Maximum *Overdrive')
- 1988 - Blow Up Your Video
- 1990 - The Razors Edge
- 1992 - Live (released as both a double and a single album)
- 1995 - Ballbreaker
- 1997 - Bonfire (tribute to the late Bon Scott including several discs of old *cuts)
- 2000 - Stiff Upper Lip