AC/DC
An Australian rock group, called by the letters of indicating an alternate and direct current, is justly considered to be one of the most successful and popular rock bands in the world. There are no those fans of the “hard” music, who did not hear the name AC-DC and did not admit an undisputable talent of the famous fivesome.
The band was formed by brothers, guitarists, Angus and Malcolm Young. At first, they were the only permanent band members, the rest of the band constantly changed. Only by 1975, it could be called established and namely at that time AC/DC released their first album titled High Voltage. The album’s success was not great but this did not keep the band from pursuing the work. Due to the hard work and starring on the popular TV-show ‘Countdown’, devoted to the music and artists, AC/DC managed to head the list of the most popular artists of Australia. At this period the band worked hard at creating and recording new singles and albums. They wrote a famous song “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)”, which became a sort of a rock-and-roll hymn.
The international popularity fell on the band after signing the contract with Atlantic Records Company, which started their road tour in Europe. They performed together with the most famous singers, such as Kiss, Nazareth, Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper. Their unique style and original image became the band’s signature that was the idea (as well as offered and approved band’s name) of the elder sister of brothers Young – Margaret, who proposed them to perform in dresses, which looked like a school uniform. This style unusually contrasted with a hard and vivid manner of musicians’ playing.
In 1980, the band went through an unexpected trial – their vocalist and songwriter Bon Scott died after the heavy alcohol consumption. The band members were so shocked by their colleague and friend’s death that thought about disbandment of AC/DC. But, when they came themselves, the guys realized that their gone friend would hardly like such a decision and began to search for another vocalist. Using the method of trial and error, they finally found Brian Johnson, who, after all, wedded with the band and helped to record a new album Back in Black, which became the most successful album of the group and was included into annals of the hard rock history. One of the songs was written in Scott’s memory.
Next years the band released one album after another with short breaks. They all won positive comments of critics and fans of AC/DC. However, one of them – Fly on the Wall – turned to be less successful than other ones, many video clips were recorded for the songs from this album. AC/DC left musical hit-parades for a while but they came back there soon.
AC/DC is still in demand on the world rock stage, at the beginning of the new millennium. Brothers Young and their tried musical companions are idols of millions of rock music’s fans. Their singles still head prestigious hit-parades. The album Black Ice, released in 2008, immediately peaked at #1 on charts of 29 countries in the world. In 2010, they recorded an album Iron Man that included the best band’s songs, which became soundtracks for the famous screen comics with the eponymous title.
