Why Didn't The AC/DC Style Originate In America?

It did.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GOH2vw2q0A

 

Yep this.
Thanks for posting. Was what i was thinking about those other Aussie bands at that time but couldn't be bothered typing it.

 

Having been only a very casual listener of AC/DC before, I happened to buy their entire collection in Mp3 format from Amazon for a ridiculously cheap price ($5.99 or something like that - a ridiculous and probably mistaken pricing that Amazon nevertheless honored), and the conclusion that I came to after immersing myself in their early albums was that they have a remarkable similarity to Chuck Berry. Chuck is the core of their groove, they just amped it up and made it stomp instead of dance. AC/DC is really a variety of the original rock'n'roll groove. Personally, I don't think they could have come out of America. There's something really Australian about AC/DC, a street-tough, hard-bitten attitude that Americans do quite differently. I can think of at least two other Australian bands that completely nail the AC/DC sound (The Angels and Airbourne), and I bet there are many others. Now, one can say that these bands are just straight-up ripping off AC/DC, but they do it so well that I've gotta think there's something about the culture in Australia that inspires this proud, stomping rock'n'roll sound.

 

The American drumming wouldn't be as "left/right"

 

Three main reasons why:
George Young, Malcolm Young and Angus Young.

 

...spot on !
... but the secret ingredient (so often missed by North American Berry-inspired outfits) is the Sense Of Humour !!
I wager Bon Scott was a disciple of Chuck Berry's double entendre (semi-ribald) lyrics, and that this was just as important as the Berry-inspired riffs from the Young brothers...

 

But there was AFL which had the same kind of chanting as soccer did in Europe

 

Nah that's a stretch AFL crowds are nothing like soccer crowds aside from Port fans singing Never Tear Us Apart.

 

A couple of mentions already, but The Easybeats were also part of the blue-print for AC/DC,
it's undeniable.
Have to mention, the use of high gain amplifiers as opposed to the early Fender like amps.
I'm sure 'the sound' is part of the fact we use 220/240V power, and like the British,
affects the way amplifiers colors the sound for that harsh 'middly' crunch.

 

Because of the 1960s (and the Beatles influence) pushing American bands of that era in a different direction. AC/DC emerged because they could only do one thing well, but they could do that thing really well.

 

Perhaps but even then the boys in AC DC while living in Australia would likely have been passionate soccer fans having been born in Scotland

 

I seem to remember Angus Young saying he was trying to emulate Chuck Berry and similar artists. Still I have no idea why anyone would think a band from America would come up with the sound rather than a band from Australia, or any country for that matter.

 

i think the closest, in some ways, american precedent to AC/DC might had been the MC5. im not a big fan of the five tbh, but you can make a case of their own take of marshall amplified berry style rock being a bit similar.

 

Aussie rock has distinctive flavours from city to city. Sydney bands were usually forged on the surf club circuits. Melbourne bands were forged in the pubs, and except for recent lock down time, Melbourne maintains one of the best live music cultures anywhere. Both cities, as well as Adelaide and Perth produced influential bands: Guns&Roses admit Rose Tattoo were a major influence on both attitude and musical direction.
Kurt Cobain always name checked The Scientists as influential.

MIDNIGHT OIL could never had come from Melbourne. Nick Cave could never have come from Sydney.
AC/DC were, for the time, a serendipitous mix of all four major cities, road tested in Melbourne, fine tuned in Sydney. With Vanda and Young guiding things, they knew exactly what the punters in the pubs wanted. But these guys were not a sloppy garage band. They could really play, tight and furious. Listen to the earliest albums, disciplined musicianship cleanly recorded, but with a twist that made you overlook how well crafted it was - Bon Scott.
With lyrical concerns tailored to the tastes of pimply adolescents, blow jobs, hand jobs, road trips, petty crime, but , well, mainly blow jobs,
all delivered with wink and smirk, how could they lose.
That's the magic; non pretentious hard rock that never took itself too seriously.
That and the fact that anyone could still rock a school uniform in his sixties, well - respect.

 

The sense of humor shouldn't be underrated. The best bands had one including those rascals from Liverpool. The "he made it out.....with a bullet in his back!" from Jailbreak always makes me chuckle a little. Of course they lost most of this sense of humor when Bon Scott died.

 

Foghat would be similar. I remember one record guide describing Foghat as Chuck Berry done extremely loud, which is I'd also describe AC/DC.

 

"Slow Ride" does not involve any humour, IMHO ..... juxtapose that with "The Jack"......

 

Wasn't Stevie Wright the first choice for lead singer in AC/DC?

 

My thought exactly

 

Sounds familiar... But I'm not sure....

 

Find and watch this documentary and the question will be answered.

 

The fact that AC/DC don't put any quieter tracks on their albums these days is because they know what works for them.
People know what they are buying with AC/DC, and they have had that formulaic sound ever since Back In Black.
It also means that when you've got one AC/DC album, you've got them all.

 

I think Nazareth beat AC/DC to this style.

 

Via Scotland.

 

From 1966.

As far as Americans, don't undersell Alice Cooper.