AC/DC
The Australian hard rock band that reduced rock and roll to its essentials and conquered the world with what was left. Formed in Sydney in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young, AC/DC found their voice when singer Bon Scott joined in 1974, and spent the rest of the decade grinding across Australia, Europe, and America one club at a time. High Voltage, Let There Be Rock, and Powerage built the foundation; Highway to Hell, released on July 27, 1979, delivered the American breakthrough. Scott died on February 19, 1980, less than seven months later, at 33.
The band's answer to that loss became the stuff of legend. With new singer Brian Johnson, AC/DC recorded Back in Black as a tribute to Scott — it stands today as the second-best-selling album in history. The band has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, and carried on past Malcolm Young's death in 2017 with the chart-topping Power Up and a world tour still running in 2026. Two statues of Bon Scott, in Kirriemuir, Scotland and Fremantle, Australia, bookend the story of a band that never once changed the formula — because the formula never stopped working.
Articles on AC/DC
AC/DC – Touch Too Much
Brian Johnson Never Sang It Once — The AC/DC Song Left Untouched for Thirty-Six Years, Then Given to Axl Rose
AC/DC – Back In Black
AC/DC – Highway to Hell
The Highway to Hell was a real road — the downhill run to Bon Scott's favorite Perth pub — and the song named for it broke AC/DC in America six months before he died.
AC/DC – Thunderstruck
AC/DC – Let There Be Rock | The Song Recorded on a Burning Amp
Angus's Amp Exploded Halfway Through — They Used the Take Anyway