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Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
AC/DC Reaches A Historic Milestone With The Song That Won't Stop Selling
AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck' reaches 520 weeks on Billboard's Rock Digital Song Sales chart, marking a ... More full decade as a top rock digital seller in the U.S. INDIO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 07: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Angus Young of AC/DC performs onstage during the Power Trip music festival at Empire Polo Club on October 07, 2023 in Indio, California. (Photo byfor Power Trip) AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck' is a once-in-a-century kind of hit. The track not only defines the band's time together, but it's also recognized as one of the most successful in hard rock history. Few tunes have come close to matching its ubiquity and commercial success. Decades after its release, the cut remains a staple — and at least in the United States, it's a consistent bestseller. This week is especially notable for 'Thunderstruck' on one Billboard ranking, as it reaches a milestone that very few compositions will come close to achieving. On the latest edition of the Rock Digital Song Sales chart — the Billboard tally that ranks the bestselling rock-only tracks in the nation — 'Thunderstruck' climbs from No. 15 to No. 9. As it holds on, and even improves, the tune celebrates 520 frames on the list. This period makes it a complete decade as one of the top-selling cuts in that style in the largest music market in the world. 'Thunderstruck' is AC/DC's first track to spend 520 weeks on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart. It's easily the band's longest-running success. The runner-up, 'Back in Black,' has only managed to remain on the tally for 127 stays. 'Thunderstruck' eclipses that total four times over. Those two titles are the only ones in the group's discography to make it to triple digit stays on this purchases-only roster. 'Thunderstruck' surpasses every other smash AC/DC has sent to the Rock Digital Song Sales chart throughout the years. The group has pushed 19 tunes onto the tally, and the other 18 have combined for 224 weeks on the list. That's less than half as long as 'Thunderstruck' has held on. The generation-defining smash also outpaces every other top 10 hit on the current edition of the Rock Digital Song Sales tally. Combined, those nine tunes have accumulated 146 weeks on the ranking — while 'Thunderstruck' beats that figure three-and-a-half times over, and still manages to rejoin the loftiest tier on the list. 'Thunderstruck' isn't only succeeding on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart this week. It also appears inside the top 10 on both the Hard Rock Streaming Songs and Hard Rock Digital Song Sales tallies as well.
Chicago Tribune
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
AC/DC at Soldier Field: They're still at the top if you wanna rock ‘n' roll
Angus Young, his shoulder-length hair now gray and failing to conceal a bald patch atop his head, spun on his back and kicked his legs like a child throwing a tantrum. Wearing his trademark schoolboy uniform with short pants and an Illini-colored orange-and-blue tie, the AC/DC guitarist used his left hand to squeeze the life out of a Gibson SG and his right to pick the strings with vision-blurring velocity. That scene at Soldier Field on Saturday was at once familiar and silly — and altogether brilliant, especially in its distillation of AC/DC's inimitable blend of harmless mischief, megawatt power, combustible energy and laser-focused attack. In town following a nearly 10-year local absence — the longest gap between Chicago concerts in its history — AC/DC went about its business as if nothing had changed with its personnel or its industry since the days of 8-track tape. Or, to quote singer Brian Johnson, speaking to the packed audience near the beginning of the 135-minute show, the group promised 'the same stuff we always do.' Given the Australian collective's live reputation and topsy-turvy circumstances over the past decade, that pledge carried considerable weight. And after a bit of a sluggish start, AC/DC stayed true to its word. Young and Johnson led the way, leveraging 45 years of shared experience and ignoring the typical limitations of their septuagenarian ages in their steadfast commitment to performing fun, hard, disciplined, bluesy rock 'n' roll at high decibel levels. They were aided by a stadium-geared set that threw one punch to the solar plexus after another, the mix of ubiquitous favorites and a few choice deep cuts emphasizing rhythm first and everything else second. AC/DC can surely recite cuts such as 'Back in Black' in its sleep, but the band's dedication to its craft prevented any shortcuts. The quintet may have nothing to prove except, possibly, to itself. Column: AC/DC and the underrated art of doing the same thing foreverAt this juncture, AC/DC deserves to update the name of its early single 'It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)' to reflect how remaining a heavyweight often proves far more difficult than making it big in the first place. The equivalent of a nine-lives cat, the band has survived serious challenges since forming in 1973. The 1980 death of vocalist Bon Scott due to alcohol poisoning, coupled with a creative and commercial freefall during the Reagan era, seemingly prepared AC/DC to handle other setbacks. The '80s also witnessed a shuffling of drummers and the plugging in of Stevie Young as a temporary tour substitution for his uncle, co-founding guitarist Malcolm Young, who checked into rehab. Comparatively, the next quarter century went swimmingly. AC/DC regained its mojo, releasing a solid new album every couple of years and filling arenas around the globe. Its 2003 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame confirmed what most fans already knew: The band stood as a visionaries whose incalculable influence topped that of many of its more celebrated brethren. In the mid-2010s, fate again reared its ugly head. The 2014 retirement of Malcolm (who died in 2017) and sudden spring 2016 departure of Johnson due to the risk of complete hearing loss threw shade on the future. Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose stepped in for Johnson and allowed the group to finish its tour, the finale of which coincided with bassist Cliff Williams' retirement. Had AC/DC reached the end? Nope. Surprising everyone, Johnson returned. Equipped with advanced in-ear-monitor technology, he partnered with his old mates on the 2020 LP 'Power Up' and got back in the ring. For its current trek, the band recruited bassist Chris Chaney and drummer Matt Laug to sit in for staples Williams and Phil Rudd, respectively. Admittedly, it felt weird not seeing Williams in his usual spot. Lacking the chemistry of the men they replaced, Chaney and Laug didn't always muster the wrecking-ball swing, foundations-rattling shake or hospital-corner tightness of their esteemed predecessors. A few songs, 'If You Want Blood (You've Got It)' and 'Thunderstruck' included, never hit full boil and unfurled at a slower pace. Paging Stevie Young and his steady, sweeping right arm. With him running point for the rhythm section and ironing out kinks, any lingering clunkiness and tardiness dissipated by the time the eerie tolling announced 'Hells Bells.' To be certain, this wasn't AC/DC in its prime with its classic lineup. Johnson's voice no longer even pretends to scale the extreme highs or possesses the lung strength to hold extended notes. He compensated by adjusting the vocal key, or doubling-up on the word or phrase in question. But as big-name veteran bands with retooled lineups go, AC/DC sounded engaged, lean, direct, even occasionally indomitable. It fared better than the Rolling Stones last year and 'Fare Thee Well' Grateful Dead in 2015, to cite two examples of still-respected peers that soldiered on with new faces. The decision to primarily forgo production excess and stick to the basics — a classic backdrop comprised of a wall of amplifiers bisected by the drum kit and framed by stairs; three video screens primary dedicated to broadcasting the action; a short runway — underlined AC/DC's obsessive moderation and dogged mentality. Adorned in a denim Harley-Davidson vest, jeans and newsboy cap, Johnson oozed blue-collar personality. His strained, sandpaper-coarse timbre served as an ideal conduit for songs concerned with boisterous revelries, shady agreements, licentious intentions and musical pleasures. Cackling, screeching, muttering: He nailed the persuasive magnetism of the back-door mercenary narrating 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,' hellraising spirit of the rabble-rouser boozing it up on 'Have a Drink on Me' and overconfident bravado of the high roller crashing 'Sin City.' With devil-may-care attitude, Johnson found joy in every stanza, operating in total synergy with Angus Young. The tandem's give-and-take dynamic blossomed on nearly every tune, with the generously spaced chords and steady buildups of the minimalist architecture inviting Young to flourish. He didn't disappoint. Still the clever prankster lurking at the back of the classroom, he snarled and gritted his teeth, holding his instrument at a 60-degree angle while dispensing disruptive solos that took the form of cruise missiles aimed at no particular target. His distinctive tones — raw, bluesy, cleanly distorted and proudly overdriven — surged with jolting currents and ultimately bolstered an 18-minute solo that instilled the history lesson of 'Let There Be Rock.' And was there ever, complete with Angus Young, knobby knees and thin ankles, scampering, duck-walking and hopping from place to place. His fireplug vitality surrendered only to his untamed playing, boogie feel and volumes upon volumes of mesmerizing riffs. Robust, substantial riffs that were brass-knuckle tough ('Demon Fire'), convulsive ('High Voltage'), jagged ('Riff Raff'), stacked ('Whole Lotta Rosie') and folded like intricate pieces of origami ('Stiff Upper Lip'). Young never ran dry or repeated himself, his electricity juicing the group's catchy hooks and prompting his pint-sized body to visibly shiver. The extent of his and his cohorts' wallop can best be framed by a question: How many other bands could afford to bury a signature song, one as recognized, charged and guaranteed to ignite a mass sing-a-long as 'Highway to Hell,' in the middle of their set without batting an eye? Right arm elevated and pointing skyward, the fleet fingers of his left hand racing down the guitar's fretboard, a knowing sneer washing over his face as he assumed an iconic pose, Angus Young knew the from Soldier Field May 24: 'If You Want Blood (You've Got It)' 'Back in Black' 'Demon Fire' 'Shot Down in Flames' 'Thunderstruck' 'Have a Drink on Me' 'Hells Bells' 'Shot in the Dark' 'Stiff Upper Lip' 'Highway to Hell' 'Shoot to Thrill' 'Sin City' 'Rock 'n' Roll Train' 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' 'High Voltage' 'Riff Raff' 'You Shook Me All Night Long' 'Whole Lotta Rosie' 'Let There Be Rock' Encore 'T.N.T.' 'For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)'
Forbes
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
AC/DC Reaches A Major Milestone As The Band Returns To No. 1
AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck' returns to No. 1 on Billboard's Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart, marking ... More its fifty-ninth week at the summit and week No. 650 on the tally. LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 28: Singer Brian Johnson (L) and musician Angus Young of AC/DC perform at Dodger Stadium on September 28, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by) AC/DC's catalog is filled with huge hit singles, many of which were released decades ago, but which have stood the test of time. The group regularly keeps multiple tracks on the charts in the United States, as fans across the country continue to buy and stream the most popular songs from the Australian rock outfit's discography. This week, one track is in the middle of a very exciting stay on one tally, and it once again shows itself to be perhaps the group's most successful tune. AC/DC's week is especially busy the Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart. The band's tune 'Thunderstruck' both reaches a major milestone and soars back to the summit, reclaiming the throne on Billboard's list of the bestselling hard rock-only tracks in America. 'Thunderstruck' jumps from No. 5 to No. 1 this week, replacing Sleep Token at the top spot. That group debuted 'Damocles' atop the tally last frame. That cut dips to No. 9 this time around. 'Thunderstruck' has now spent 59 weeks at No. 1 on the Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart. That's longer on the throne than most tunes will manage on any Billboard list. It is one of only four leaders by AC/DC on the hard rock-only list, and it outpaces the combined amount of time the band's other three champions have spent at the summit — by a factor of 10. As it soars back to the highest rung, 'Thunderstruck' also reaches a significant milestone on the Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart. As of this frame, the tune has now spent 650 weeks on the purchase-only ranking. It is AC/DC's first cut to reach that landmark figure, and it will likely be quite a while before another does so. 'Back in Black' is the group's second-longest-charting success on the Hard Rock Digital Song Sales list. Even after years on the roster, it still lags a little more than 100 weeks behind 'Thunderstruck.' 'Thunderstruck' appears on multiple Billboard rankings this frame. In addition to hitting No. 1 on the Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart, it also lands inside the top 10 on both the Hard Rock Streaming Songs list (No. 7) and Rock Digital Song Sales tally (No. 8). The cut returns to the highest tier on that latter roster even as it drops exactly 40 spaces on the Billboard Global 200. 'Back in Black' is not just AC/DC's second-longest-running hit on the Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart, it's also the group's only other current win in the U.S. This frame, it barely holds on at No. 25, the final position on the Hard Rock Streaming Songs list.
Chicago Tribune
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Column: AC/DC and the underrated art of doing the same thing forever
Angus Young, the AC/DC guitarist who still dresses in the round cap and short pants of an Australian schoolboy (despite turning 70 in March), once gave an amazing response to a frequent criticism about his band: People say AC/DC, founded in Sydney in 1973 (and playing a sold-out show at Soldier Field on Saturday), have been making the same album, and writing the same song, , for the past 52 years. Since 1975, they've made 17 studio albums and every single one, to the non-metal head, casual listener and plenty of fans, sounds just like every other one. So sometime in the '80s, when they still had only a dozen records, Young told a reporter he was 'sick to death' of critics who say they have made 11 albums 'that sound exactly the same — in fact, we've made 12 albums that sound exactly the same.' That's the healthiest thing a metal band ever said. There's freedom, and a profound understanding of craft, in repetition. I admire artists who do one thing again and again with little variety, sidling up to a proverbial lunch counter and proudly ordering the same sandwich every day without deliberation. I don't mean the Warhols of the world espousing commodification, and or someone like Martin Scorsese who merely made a lot of gangster films. I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean — artists who repeat, and repeat, and repeat. There may be variation in there, but that would only be evident to a connoisseur. Also, I don't include the cynical artist who recycles endlessly without intending to repeat. Mark Rothko, the great abstract painter who made countless 'color fields' that could be described as soft hues arranged into blurry rectangles, arranged rectangles in many ways. But what's moving about Rothko's rectangles is the commitment. He died three years before AC/DC formed. He had more of a thing for Schubert than Australian metal. But if they found themselves at the same table at a wedding, Angus Young and Mark Rothko could have bonded. That sounds like a cool table. Also seated there is the Ramones — whose shows were one 60-minute punk squall broken by shouts of Since this is a large table (please don't ask who the Ramones, Mark Rothko and AC/DC would know in common to be invited to the same wedding), seat Agatha Christie there, too. Picking over their rubbery chickens, they'd recognize a shared philosophy: Insanity is not always doing one thing over and over, and expecting different results. Doing one thing can mean refinement, even appreciation. Christie likely wrote at least one mystery without a dead body in a train, steamship, boarding school or coastal mansion, without the usual suspects or a tweedy inspector, but I don't want to read it. She was so devoted to one thing, for 50 years, that reading enough Christie and identifying the mechanics that make it all interesting, and not the killer, is the fun part. These are one-track minds. These are artists who rarely wander, and somehow both artist and audience never seem to care. Adoringly so. To say both like a good formula doesn't capture this intense bond. You get a feeling both parties are tucked beneath a warm blanket. There's no more disappointment here than realizing that waves keep coming, and coming. Knowing that behind every swell is always another is soothing. But when is it just lazy? My mind immediately goes to decades of 'Friday the 13th' movies in which a masked killer hunts countless variations of the same teenagers in the first movie, only allowing for a tweak here or there: killer in 3D, killer in New York City, killer in space. Why are those lifeless while, say, the latest Steven Soderbergh crime movie 'Black Bag,' as effortless and familiar as any Soderbergh crime flick from two decades ago, is still satisfying? Because Soderbergh is playing variations on a theme, a style or a structure, appearing to surprise himself that he can stretch it as far as he does. As serial killer franchises go (and there are good ones), the 'Friday the 13th' franchise was never that curious about itself. Comparatively, AC/DC, which nobody would accuse of being curious, can still get your blood surging because they still locate something exciting in two chords. At that wedding table, I imagine Young pulls out his cell phone and Christie peeks over and notices that his home screen is one of Monet's countless haystacks, and she smiles knowingly. An artist who repeats over and over again and rarely bores is the artist who is always seeing, unwilling to move on until they explore an idea completely — maybe for a lifetime. It's as if they have been locked into a long conversation with the idea itself. Pick up nearly any big multi-disc jazz reissue and you hear this playing out in real time, with the same musicians picking over one or two songs again and again, sometimes with inaudible differences. Jim Nutt, the Chicago Imagist, now 86, made so many paintings of female heads, it's like its own genre. Woody Allen, for years on end, seemed to shoot the same movie about the same characters having the same tics in the same city (New York City), you could have been fooled into thinking he was the most well-adjusted filmmaker ever. Part of the genius of blues and country artists is in the million ways they say only a few things. There's a new Lana Del Rey song with a funny line warily bemoaning: 'All these country singers / And their lonely rides to Houston.' Part of the joke is that Lana Del Rey herself is the AC/DC of contemporary pop stars — thrillingly so. is her thing. Some might say her only thing. Her songs rarely go beyond a light gallup, her tone is always breathy and lush. My daughter groans whenever I ask Siri to play Lana; it's like I'm calling up the same song once again. Yet I don't hear any boredom in Lana Del Rey's sound. She is so thoroughly exploring the limits of contemporary ballads, you hang on every digression or alteration — a fast electronic hiccup, a touch of Ennio Morricone twang. The other day, I was talking to Chicago artist Theaster Gates and asked why he repeats himself so often, especially with his pottery. He mentioned growing up in a Baptist church where the pastor would riff on a single Bible verse for hours. He thinks of his own repetition as meditating on a single thought, or like a marker he carries through life: the Pledge of Allegiance, he said, means one thing when you're 6, but something else when you're 16, and another thing entirely if you fight in a war. We put a premium on artists who can't sit still, who show endless range and seem to switch hit every time at bat. David Bowie, for instance, is our contemporary ideal of an artist who refused to rest on laurels and do one thing well. Bowie, like Prince, like Bob Dylan, gravitated to change with an almost evolutionary fear — if you don't adapt, eventually you become irrelevant and get eaten. But the artist who repeats obsessively leans into a different truism: If every work of art is made up of only a handful of fresh thoughts, then what matters is . Every R.L. Stine 'Goosebumps' book is only slightly different than any other. Characters in novels by Haruki Murakami — who refers to his own repetition as meditation — make a lot of omelettes and listen to a lot of jazz. John Irving's characters get visited by bears. Alfred Hitchcock — who once remade his own film ('The Man Who Knew Too Much') — never met a mistaken identity he wouldn't explore. Elin Hilderbrand likes unease in paradise. John Carpenter has made too many variations on 'Rio Bravo' to count. I have never been able to distinguish between Jackson Pollock's splatters. The amazing Art Preserve in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, an extension of the Kohler Arts Center, is several floors of psychosis and artists who, oh, decide to paint only skulls or sculpt clay into only religious figures. I love that, not despite the predictability but of it. I insist I want variety in everything — eating, visiting, etc. — and yet one of the best feelings is seeing a well-trodden trail in a dense forest. Plenty of consumer studies bear this out: We say we long for new experiences but don't mind the same thing again and again. If you love something enough, you tend to change alongside it; if you're lucky, you notice those changes every time you return. AC/DC only ever sounds like AC/DC, and in a world being upended, that's a form of life insurance. Listening to their early stuff now, I hear cave men with guitars, but with the newer songs, rock stars with private jets, though really it's one long thump and always should be. Crunch, thump, hell, blood, thump, back in black, high voltage, crunch, live wire, thump, let there be rock — . For those about to rock, I salute you.
Boston Globe
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
AC/DC can still hit the big notes
Even so, Laug, Chaney and Stevie Young were strictly background, the latter two only leaving their spots flanking the drum kit to walk mid-stage to their microphones for the occasional group chant before retreating once again. Johnson and Angus Young, on the other hand, had full reign of the stage, each with their trademark apparel: the singer playfully slumping in his workingman's cap and the guitarist duckwalking and skittering in his schoolboy uniform (albeit one a little more bespoke these days). Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up There were indications this many decades down the road that AC/DC was slowing down, but only indications. Angus Young's prismatic opening riff of 'Thunderstruck' was a hair sluggish – the song picked up noticeably after the pause announcing the arrival of the song's title – and the guitarist's madman stage moves were doled out in smaller, discrete chunks. And Johnson was largely garbled and incomprehensible, both during the songs and between them. Advertisement And it didn't matter. The singer was audible enough to fill his role and the guitarist was impish enough to still throw off sparks. The sound itself was resilient enough for 'Back In Black' to hit like a hammer, 'Whole Lotta Rosie' to swing like a wrecking ball and the guitars themselves to sound rude in the gleefully self-deprecating 'Shot Down In Flames.' Even the newest songs, 2020's 'Demon Fire' and 'Shot In The Dark,' did exactly what AC/DC songs need to do. And Angus Young still played with fire. 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' was mean and nasty (in both senses of the term), and the rangy whirlwind lead of 'Riff Raff' was a good match with the headlong propulsion of the rhythm. And 'Let There Be Rock' ended the set with a 25-minute showcase for the guitarist, who burned as the band played a one-note riff behind him before bouncing short chord bursts off the back of the stadium and launching into an extended solo above the drums. The rest of the band came back for an explosive 'T.N.T.,' followed by 'For Those About To Rock (We Salute You).' That's when the cannons came out. AC/DC With The Pretty Reckless At: Gillette Stadium, Sunday Marc Hirsh can be reached at officialmarc@ or on Bluesky @ Advertisement
