Australian rock giants AC/DC have sold more records in the U.S. than Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, and than the Rolling Stones, yet have always been undervalued and unappreciated by mainstream rock music critics. In Why AC/DC Matters, former Rolling Stone staff writer and New York Times bestselling author Anthony Bozza addresses this inequity, penning a just tribute to these monsters of rock. Brimming with fascinating stories and insights from musicians, fans, music scholars, and the author himself, Why AC/DC Matters is an overdue homage to arguably the greatest rock and roll band of all time.
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What It Means to Be Young
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About the Author
Anthony Bozza is the author of four New York Times Bestsellers, including Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem, Slash, co-written with Slash and the #1 bestselling Too Fat to Fish, co-written with Artie Lange. Bozza was a staff writer and editor for Rolling Stone magazine for seven years, during which he profiled a diverse range of artists from Eminem and the Wu-Tang Clan to Trent Reznor and U2. He lives in New York City.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
basically this is the ultimate fan love poem,its like if your teacher said give me 100,000 words on why you love ac/dc and its great,almost to the point where i reccomend it to haters more than fans for the simple fact that it does so beautifully just what it says, it explains why ac/dc matters.it examines every character first the young brothers, then the lead singers, then the rhythem section and it explains how they work together to create the best band in the world with spectacular live shows and one of the greatest fan bases in the world.
this doesn't contain any new info for fans,but it is a nice read for the person who loves all things ac/dc and those curious people who want to know what all the fuss is about some old rockers who always play the same three chords.
this doesn't contain any new info for fans,but it is a nice read for the person who loves all things ac/dc and those curious people who want to know what all the fuss is about some old rockers who always play the same three chords.
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By Javdoctor
Format:Hardcover
I will preface this by saying I do love AC/DC, have always been a fan, have seen them a number of times in concert, etc. I probably would never have bought this book, as I already think AC/DC is arguably the best rock n' roll band, but I won it in a contest so it was cool to read it for free. In any case, while I do agree with Bozza's whole argument that despite what the music "critics" seem to think, AC/DC is an important band, I am not sure whether it was worthy of a book, even one as compact as this. He makes some good points about why what they do is unique for its' simplicity and power, and obviously the whole series of events leading up to 'Back In Black' [and it's subsequent success] speak for themselves. But, providing a good overview on the bands' history does not equate with a justification of why they matter.
Overall, I am not sure who this was written for exactly, except perhaps Bozza himself. For someone who already likes AC/DC, there is really nothing new here. For someone who doesn't particularly like them, or even dislikes them, I doubt they would even pick it up in the first place. And honestly, reading a book about a band is not going to suddenly make you respect or even like that band: I could read that Nickleback has incredible similarities to Beethoven, but I will still think they suck [sorry to any Nickleback fans, but they do... ;) ]. At the end of the day, I think this would have made a much better magazine article than a book - and likely gotten to a wider audience.
But, really, if there's any doubt and if you want to know why AC/DC matter, just get a copy of 'Highway To Hell' and 'Back In Black'. If that doesn't do it for you, then you're clearly never going to be convinced.
Overall, I am not sure who this was written for exactly, except perhaps Bozza himself. For someone who already likes AC/DC, there is really nothing new here. For someone who doesn't particularly like them, or even dislikes them, I doubt they would even pick it up in the first place. And honestly, reading a book about a band is not going to suddenly make you respect or even like that band: I could read that Nickleback has incredible similarities to Beethoven, but I will still think they suck [sorry to any Nickleback fans, but they do... ;) ]. At the end of the day, I think this would have made a much better magazine article than a book - and likely gotten to a wider audience.
But, really, if there's any doubt and if you want to know why AC/DC matter, just get a copy of 'Highway To Hell' and 'Back In Black'. If that doesn't do it for you, then you're clearly never going to be convinced.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Micheal Hunt
Format:Kindle Edition
At first I found this small little book to be refreshing that it was written by a fan of AC/DC who wasn't just collaborating a bunch of old articles written about AC/DC over the years, nor did he make up mythical B.S like Malcolm Dome-head's buck teeth bobbing around like he knows what he's talking about or Clinton DorkWalker in what should have been called "How I suspect the Young's killed Bon Scott". I did find a little bit of information about the band and it's members that I did not know about, and was pleasantly surprised that it had chapters dedicated to each member of the band, and not just 90% written about Bon Scott.
However, the authors choice of overkill in word structure had me rolling my eyes as he used unnecessary wordings to construct pretty much every paragraph. It's not that I don't understand the big grown up words, it's more I got the feeling he used them so much to make such short writings seem longer by typing up a sentence that you would not hear someone say to you in your average conversation. I think it's the fact that it's explained by the author a billion times in this book that AC/DC's simplicity is a key factor to their success. He should try to implement some of that advice into his own sentence structure and understand that constantly using fancier words, and repeating the same thing over and over again is not needed to get your points across.
I also found some of the writings about the band have not been proof read very well, such times and dates are incorrect and I feel the name Bon Scott and Brian Johnson where mixed up with each other in certain areas of this book. I also was a little put off by so many mentions/quotes by some professor of music, who I don't know if the author put into his own words or not, but dribbled on and on about the same things as much as the author did. You don't need to refer to something as "a vast majority of leaflet filled chirography, forming a diverse advertorial, for today's modern day society patrons learning pleasures" when all you need to say is "it's a book." - It's a book for fans to read, not a presidential speech for F sakes.
Apart from the "nonsensical" sentence structures, it's not a bad read for the price. Just keep in mind that it's a tiny book and a quick read, and if you do read it, you will see what i mean when I say it's a small read, that has been stretched out with a fair amount of overkill to make it seem less shorter then it really is, and should have been.
However, the authors choice of overkill in word structure had me rolling my eyes as he used unnecessary wordings to construct pretty much every paragraph. It's not that I don't understand the big grown up words, it's more I got the feeling he used them so much to make such short writings seem longer by typing up a sentence that you would not hear someone say to you in your average conversation. I think it's the fact that it's explained by the author a billion times in this book that AC/DC's simplicity is a key factor to their success. He should try to implement some of that advice into his own sentence structure and understand that constantly using fancier words, and repeating the same thing over and over again is not needed to get your points across.
I also found some of the writings about the band have not been proof read very well, such times and dates are incorrect and I feel the name Bon Scott and Brian Johnson where mixed up with each other in certain areas of this book. I also was a little put off by so many mentions/quotes by some professor of music, who I don't know if the author put into his own words or not, but dribbled on and on about the same things as much as the author did. You don't need to refer to something as "a vast majority of leaflet filled chirography, forming a diverse advertorial, for today's modern day society patrons learning pleasures" when all you need to say is "it's a book." - It's a book for fans to read, not a presidential speech for F sakes.
Apart from the "nonsensical" sentence structures, it's not a bad read for the price. Just keep in mind that it's a tiny book and a quick read, and if you do read it, you will see what i mean when I say it's a small read, that has been stretched out with a fair amount of overkill to make it seem less shorter then it really is, and should have been.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Anthony's best
I read Slash by Anthony Bozza and loved it. I am not even a fan of Slash or GNR; however, I am fascinated about most things having to do with Rock musicians. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Bolter
4.0 out of 5 stars
Why does AC/DC matter?
I grew up in the 80s listening to Queen, Blondie, Michael Jackson, Human League, and everything else that was played on MTV. Read more
Published on December 7, 2009 by M. Scott
3.0 out of 5 stars
Generally interesting book
What puts this books above mere worship for the YOung Brothers, is on single passagem when the author admits that most of their work in the eighties ("FLy On The Wall" and "Blow Up... Read more
Published on November 14, 2009 by M. Fonseca
