For those about to shop, we salute you?

In case you missed the news, the Wall Street Journal leaked a report about AC/DC selling their newest CD as a Wal-Mart exclusive. Some response has been quite negative, and my initial feelings weren’t the best. Wal-Mart is a store I try to avoid, even before avoiding Wal-Mart was the thing to do (or not do). I spent the summer of 1994 working as a stockman at the local location. It wasn’t a bad job, but it was by far my least favorite job. It probably didn’t help that I was living in a dorm with no air conditioning, my roommate bailed on me, I was making minimum wage, and I was by far the lowest rung in the Wal-Mart ladder, if being a stockman (stockperson nowadays?) is even a rung. I couldn’t wait to stop doing it, and I’ve tried to avoid the place ever since. The majority of my bosses weren’t the best either (one was actually pretty nice) and my only fond memories involve me putting together a display bookcase.

I could go into the other reasons the store gets a bad rap, but any google search worth its salt can find those. The complaints I’ve been seeing about the AC/DC thing involves a few online commentators claiming the band has “sold out”.

Are you kiddin’ me?

I’m probably the biggest AC/DC fan I know, and this notion blows my mind. “Selling out”, besides being a tired term that few use anymore, implies that a band had artistic integrity. We’re talking about a band that has songs like “Big Balls”, “Sink the Pink”, “Ballbreaker”, “That’s the Way I Wanna Rock and Roll”, “Cover You in Oil”, “Bedlam in Belgium”, “Given the Dog a Bone”, etc etc. This is a band that when accused of making the same album nine times, rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young said “I thought it was ten?” (I probably butchered that story, but you get my meaning). Their bass player, Cliff Williams, called their music “deep and meaningless”. I have a hard time believing that AC/DC is in this for the artistic merit of their music. I don’t presume to speak for the band, but it seems to me that they’re in this because they seem to enjoy doing it, and the money isn’t bad either. That’s not to say they haven’t done the odd thing to indicate otherwise (when they denied permission for the Beastie Boys to sample their music comes to mind).  When the Eagles can get the sales numbers they did from partnering with one of the top music retailers in America (now second to iTunes of all things) (BTW, AC/DC is one of the last iTunes holdouts), I would think a band that’s been away this long (eight years) and is coming off a so-so album (Stiff Upper Lip) needs a bit of an assist in promotion.

What does blow me away about this news is that WAL-MART CAME TO AC/DC(supposedly). Wal-Mart, the store that doesn’t sell albums with naughty words and tends to put themself on a pedistal of being “family friendly” is selling the new AC/DC album. I remember the “Night Prowler” bru-ha-ha. I remember people claiming it stood for “Anti-Christ/Devil’s Child”. Let’s not forget all the protests about “suggestive” and “obscene” lyrics in the 1980s by the almost-forgotten P.M.R.C. Without changing anything AC/DC has gone from being “devil music” to being sold as a Wal-Mart exclusive. Heck, I’ve bought my last three AC/DC clothing items at Target and Pamida. I’m looking at getting AC/DC baby clothing. Has society really gone that far since the 1980s? It doesnt’ feel like it to me.

I just whipped this up in MS Paint. I wonder if we can get a chunk of the stores to change their signs this fall?

Oh, just for fun, let’s look at other bands if they did the Wal-mart exclusive.

Feel free to add/suggest your own.