AC/DC at 50, a review by Joanna

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AC/DC at 50

Martin Popoff

Quarto Publishing Group

98 pages

Published March 28, 2023

🎸🎸🎸🎸

 

AC/DC at 50is a photographic review of the legendary Australian rock band’s fifty year career, by experienced Canadian music journalist, and loyal fan, Martin Popoff. I found it browsing on NetGalley, and while I’ve loved their songs since I was sixteen, I didn’t actually know much about the history of the band. The ARC copy I received was only viewable on the NetGalley app, with formatting that made it difficult to read on an iPad because of the text size, but I assume this will be published as a hardback coffee-table type book that would make an excellent gift for the rock fan who has everything! It covers the band’s debut, rise to fame, lineup changes, all the albums and concert highlights, as well as the tragedies, scandals and bust-ups. I don’t think this is an “authorised” biography (else I presume it would say so) and there’s no input from the band members themselves, but I enjoyed looking at the old photos and reminiscing about the albums that featured heavily in the soundtrack of my youth.

I liked the way each of the 50 short chapters has a song for a title, and the way the photos complement the text. Unsurprisingly there are more pictures of their wild eyed mascot Angus than anyone else, but it was fun to see images of posters, buttons, ticket stubs and other memorabilia from across the decades. The advantage of reading this on an iPad was being able to bring up videos of songs I’d forgotten, and while nothing on the more recent albums matches up to the likes of Back in Black, it’s interesting to note what has changed through the years – and what hasn’t! While this is clearly a tribute by an author who admits AC/DC are one of his favourite bands, he isn’t afraid to criticise some of the albums’ songs and production. Obviously music is so personal that everyone has their own opinions, but Popoff clearly has the pedigree to get away with it. Recommended as a bonzer trip down musical memory lane!

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