“Wasn’t communicating anything”: The fans AC/DC wanted nothing to do with
The 1970s was a consequential time for music. The decade started with the hangover from the counterculture, as well as key developments in metal, prog and glam rock. Later, punk emerged from the pub scene, which completely changed the landscape and saw the decade end with post-punk, minimalism, and electronic music innovations. An array of influential artists emerged during those nine years, with one of the most famous being AC/DC.
The Australian band have long been deemed one-dimensional by many outside their diehard fanbase, but this isn’t true. While they might keep their music relatively simple, hard-rocking, and often tongue-in-cheek, it’s important to consider the context in which they materialised. Rock ‘n’ roll purists who loved the cheeky energy of the genre’s pioneers in the 1950s, bluesmen like Muddy Waters, and 1960s legends such as Jimi Hendrix, their emergence was as much of a reaction to how ostentatious rock had become, as it was out of a lifelong love of playing.
When forming, AC/DC were clear that they had set out to put the roll, groove and energy back into a genre that they thought had become a hollow husk of itself. This was thanks to ‘rockstars’ such as Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones acting with impunity and creating music that was a pale imitation of their earlier, culturally significant efforts.
It wouldn’t take long for AC/DC to carve out a space for themselves in the happening realm of rock. Their first internationally released album, 1976’s High Voltage, was a resounding commercial success. It clearly conveyed their mission to listeners, thanks to cuts such as ‘TNT’ and ‘It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)’. From that moment when they put an emphatic, refreshing spin on rock, AC/DC kicked on, becoming legends because of their no-nonsense brand of music, which has always been an antidote to some of the genre’s most outlandish features.
Naturally, given their mission, spirit, and the character of their music, AC/DC had a defining impact on punk, particularly on the first wave of hardcore, directly through figures such as Minor Threat and Bad Religion’s Brian Baker. However, as is often the case between influences and the influenced, AC/DC never wanted anything to do with punk or its fans, a point which is made a little bit more head-scratching when noting that their albums High Voltage and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, arrived in the same year that punk emerged as a discernible cultural force: 1976.
While frontman Bon Scott was open about punk being “nothing”, guitarist Angus Young offered a more substantial account. He said the genre “wasn’t communicating anything” of meaning to him, and all they were doing was selling anarchy. He deemed this as spiritually vacuous as what the major rock acts were doing.
He said in one interview: “We liked Chuck Berry. And Berry sang about cars, women, and party time. That, to us, was rock and roll. [Punks] were locked into selling anarchy, like a political thing. To be honest with you, the first time I heard the word ’anarchy,’ I had to get a dictionary to look up the f*cker! I’m limited – meaning a limited education – so that wasn’t communicating anything to me.”
Punk might not have communicated anything of significance to Young. Ironically, however, it and AC/DC came to be deemed separate sides of the same coin, influencing everyone from Metallica to The Cult and Josh Homme.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Punk Newsletter
All the latest Punk content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.