Hoodlums Music and Movies

Two nights ago, Chris at Mac’s asked me if we would be carrying the new AC/DC CD, or if it was true that it was only going to be available exclusively at Wal-Mart.

At that point, Chris and the four other poor souls sitting around the bar had to listen to me get worked up on the subject for about the next ten minutes.  As anyone who knows me will tell you, if there’s one thing I can do - it’s rant about the idiocy of the music industry.  You don’t want to get me started.

Then again, that’s what blogs are for, right?  So consider me officially “started”.

I’m upset with AC/DC.  But more importantly, I’m disappointed.  Disappointed to lose another of my favorite bands to a complete and total sell-out to the corporatocracy.  Why do I say “complete and total”?  Because selling your CD exclusively at the world’s most boring department store is about as rock and roll as eating toast with your Grandma.

AC/DC isn’t the first of my favorites to weasel into this kind of a deal.  The Eagles were the initial instigators of this particular business model (for the same reasons - which I will get into later) - which was another mutation of prior corporate-loving maneuvers by the Stones, U2, and a ton of other big bands.

But AC/DC… at Wal-Mart?  Holy hold-the-rebellion, Batman.

This is a band that I looked to when I was continuing to learn how to rebel, and they set the example that a rock band is supposed to set for young, impressionable little trouble-makers.  The former AC/DC lead singer, Bon Scott, used to say being a bad boy ain’t that bad.  Bon gleefully bragged about being a problem child.  I still remember reading the “letters to the band” on the back of High Voltage album cover…. now that made trouble look like fun.  AC/DC helped teach me to be a hoodlum.

The first time I saw them was in Minneapolis with Fastway.  The boys and I drove nine hours from North Dakota.  It was one of the highlights of my young life.  Since then I’ve seen them numerous times.  I was even fortunate enough to meet the entire band on Valentine’s Day (my wife was cool enough to go with me after the initial show had been canceled due to Brian Johnson’s father’s death).  They were super gentlemen and incredible professionals, as I have told anyone who would listen since.

So it killed me when I heard that they had gotten in bed with the all-time champion of retail blandness and, in my opinion, one of the leaders of our country’s movement away from non-American manufactured product (read “No Logo” by Naomi Klein).  I am proud to say that I haven’t been in a Wal-Mart since 1992 (when I moved from Flagstaff), but now AC/DC says I’m going to have to visit again if I want to buy their CD.  Sorry Angus, but I don’t intend to go to Wal-Mart unless it is the last store on Earth (which might be their mission statement for all I know).

Trying to be fair, I said to Kristian, “Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on AC/DC.  It isn’t like they are the only band to sell out”.  He said, “Sure you should be.  Just imagine what they would have said in the late seventies if someone would have asked them to sell their album exclusively at Sears?”  Wow, that’s a great point.   I’d like to think of Bon punching someone.  That’s the AC/DC I know and love.  Rough, rowdy, and rebellious.

But that AC/DC doesn’t exist anymore.  Today’s AC/DC is scared and safe.  Old and totally willing to not-rebel.

You see… with this deal they get paid no matter what.  They don’t have to put the album out in the open market - and let it stand on it’s merits.  They’ve made their sale… to the company that won’t sell your album if there is “objectionable material” on the cover.  Oooh, that’s rowdy.

But wait, there is another layer of safety.  On the open market, the album isn’t being used as a promotional tool to sell toilet paper and Holiday decorations, so it would be priced based on Columbia’s (their label) still-ridiculous superstar list price of 18.99, which requires more consumer risk.  Since Wal-Mart’s main concern isn’t profit on the CD itself, it will get peddled for roughly ten bucks, which requires less of a financial decision on the part of the consumer… essentially making the CD an “impulse” item.

This is incredibly important for one reason: AC/DC doesn’t seem to be able to make good albums anymore.  That’s the real reason that all of these old bands are making these deals.  They can’t cut the artistic mustard anymore. - and they don’t dare fail in the open market.

In my opinion, AC/DC made a bunch of great albums with Bon, but the only truly great album they made with Brian was Back in Black.  For Those About to Rock was half-ass at best (which was apparent the minute you heard the title track), and it was still the second best post-Bon effort.  There have been a few good tracks here and there, but even though I consider myself a lifelong fan, I no longer own any of the subsequent albums.

I don’t want to say it.  You might not agree.  But to me, that’s the way it is.  And the reason they made this money-making, yet disgraceful, deal.  Because people like me, who buy albums and are AC/DC fans, haven’t been buying AC/DC albums, and they want to get paid.

That’s what I call a sellout.

Does it mean I won’t listen to Powerage again?  Hell no.  It just means that I will never look at the band the same again.  Just like the Eagles… and U2… and the Stones.

Blog Note: In spite of their claim to “exclusivity”, it is actually quite easy for a scrappy little record store like ours to carry the Black Ice CD without ever setting foot in corporateville.   The question is, knowing our personal feelings on the subject, do we stock the CD for customers that really want it?  After all, many people don’t feel the way we do, and they want to hear it.  By stocking it - we do move one more sale from the corporatocracy to a local merchant - but we do reward a band that sold out.

Blog Note 2: AC/DC, after feeling the backlash of this deal, attempted to make right by giving the vinyl version of the album exclusively to an indie distributor.  For the record, we don’t think any CD or LP should be exclusive anywhere… but we have learned to live with the sad reality of the practice over the years.  In spite of vinyl’s resurgence, its still no where near the popularity of the CD, so in this case it was too little; too late.

Blog Note 3: I could have posted a similar take on the Guns and Roses deal… but GnR couldn’t even put together two solid albums when they were hot, so you already knew that album was going to need some corporate help.

Tags: It's all about the music, The Music Biz

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 9:09 am and is filed under Random Babbling of a Record Store Geek, The Music Biz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.