Hard Rock
From Sydney pubs to stadiums everywhere, the loudest case for keeping rock and roll simple.
The biography
AC/DC were formed in Sydney in late 1973 by brothers Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar) and Angus Young (lead guitar), both born in Scotland and raised in Australia. The name came from the “AC/DC” label on the back of their sister’s sewing machine — alternating current, direct current — which they felt captured the band’s energy. Angus’s schoolboy uniform, adopted to cover for his small size and school-age looks, became one of rock’s most recognizable images.
The band found its voice when Bon Scott — a Scots-born singer who had briefly been the band’s driver — took over vocals in 1974. Scott’s leering, streetwise charm powered a run of Australian albums: High Voltage (1975), T.N.T. (1975), Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976), Let There Be Rock (1977), and Powerage (1978). The sound was stripped to its bones: blues riffs, a thundering backbeat, and lyrics about drinking, fighting, and rock and roll itself.
The breakthrough came with Highway to Hell (1979), produced by Robert “Mutt” Lange, who polished the band’s attack without softening it. America finally took notice — and then, in February 1980, Bon Scott died in London after a night of drinking. Most bands would have ended. AC/DC didn’t.
Within weeks, the band recruited Brian Johnson, a former singer with the band Geordie whose voice had the same sandpaper quality. They recorded Back in Black at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas and released it in July 1980 — a tribute to Scott that became one of the best-selling albums in music history, powered by its title track, “Hells Bells,” and “You Shook Me All Night Long.” The follow-up, For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) (1981), hit number 1 in America.
The lineup changed over the decades — Malcolm Young retired in 2014 and died in 2017 — but the formula never did. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, AC/DC remain the loudest proof of a simple truth: you don’t need many chords if you play the right three like you mean them.