AC/DC’s “first real album”, according to Angus Young
The simplicity of music can often be misinterpreted.
There was once a famous punk magazine called Sideburns, which championed a famous phrase that said, “A, D, G now start a band”. The idea behind this was that music doesn’t need to be complicated: you can have a voice within the music industry without a wide breadth of knowledge.
The punk movement adopted this idea in order to flood the music industry with opinionated, denim-clad, spikey-haired anarchists who were fed up with the current music industry. They felt it wasn’t a representation of the everyday person, and therefore, with minimal musical education, they wanted to leave their mark on the business. The simplistic approach was effective, but it does mean that a lot of punk bands who emerged and didn’t find mainstream success do sound…dare I say…a bit same-y.
You might argue that it’s because they are working with such a limited number of chords; however, that’s not the case, and AC/DC is living proof that just using a few chords doesn’t mean that a band should have a repetitive sound. Very few AC/DC songs steer away from the standard chords of A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and yet, within a couple of seconds, you can tell which song is playing with absolute certainty.
This is the genius of Malcolm and Angus Young, who didn’t bother overcomplicating their approach to guitar music and instead used very few chords but a unique approach to rhythm in order to give them a distinct personality. They’re a legendary band who have been on the go for decades and yet still manage to have their own incredibly specific sound that no one else has been able to replicate.
There have been plenty of boundaries put in the way of the band becoming such legends, such as changes in listening habits and shifting trends, but AC/DC always stayed true to their sonics, knowing that they were making something which was the best reflection of them.
We could sit here and argue about what the band’s greatest album is, but the record Angus Young called their “first real album” was the band’s debut, High Voltage. This was a monumental record for AC/DC, not just because it was the first time they heard themselves in a studio, but because the means by which it became popular proved that their sound had longevity, even if the public’s listening habits were shifting.
“That was our first real album, and it was the one that defined our style,” explained Young, “Up until that point, all we had really done was a lot of touring around Australia, so it was great to get into a studio and really hear how we sounded. What was impressive about that album was that it sold on word-of-mouth alone, because music on Australian radio at that time was really soft.”
Hard rock sold in volumes despite it not being “cool” at the time. High Voltage defined AC/DC’s style, it showed the band their sound had momentum, and their career was electric from that point on.
