How has Back In Black sold 25 million copies in the USA?

[BernieTaupson]

Twenty-five times more than Number of the Beast and Heaven and Hell.

Twelve times more than Screaming For Vengeance.

More than twice as many copies as VH1 or 1984.

How?

It’s not like they crossed genres like Shania or Garth selling to both pop and country genres. Or even Leppard hitting both pop rock and metal genres. How the hell did ACDC manage to move so many units?

[Mojo]

"You Shook Me All Night Long" is on the same Songs that Get the White People Turnt as "Don't Stop Believing" and "Sweet Child o' Mine." That's how/why.

[dmbrocker]

"You Shook Me All Night Long" is on the same Songs that Get the White People Turnt as "Don't Stop Believing" and "Sweet Child o' Mine." That's how/why.

The title track most likely falls under this category as well.

[Hellbound]

By putting out popular songs before the album existed, being around a while before that touring and gaining infamy and after the singer dies, put out new album that also has several popular songs.

I wasn't alive in 1980, what was the advertising like?

Add it all up it's no surprise it did as well as it has.

Also like the black album making new fans want to check out the older stuff for Metallica, I am sure stuff like Who Made Who, Thunderstruck etc. got people to also go back.

Halfway down this page you can see how the Metallica catalog sold after 1991 when the SoundScan thing came in.

http://web.archive.org/web/200110051435 ... sMay00.htm

TL;DR: I like Back in Black

[Bono Nettencourt]

"You Shook Me All Night Long" is on the same Songs that Get the White People Turnt

You need to start a thread on this.

Fuck it, I will.

[Wednesday 13 Fan]

If they sold 25 million, that absolutely crossed over.

[sirthx2]

One way is dorks like me buying like 5-6 copies. LP, Cassette, CD, re-mastered CD, DVD-A etc etc.

[Mister Freeze]

Convincing L.A. Guns to open for them helped AC/DC break through to the next level.

[Dyslexicheart]

Where I grew up, when I was 16 Back in Black was released. It instantly became our favourite record, and was played at every house party, bush party, bar, etc. for the next four years at peak levels and was easily most peoples go-to rock album. Everybody loved it and owned it.

[Love_Industry]

Where I grew up, when I was 16 Back in Black was released. It instantly became our favourite record, and was played at every house party, bush party, bar, etc. for the next four years at peak levels and was easily most peoples go-to rock album. Everybody loved it and owned it.

This doesn't surprise me at all. But what surprises me is that two albums after a 25 million seller, AC/DC struggled to sell more than gold with FotS, FotW and BUYV.

Also that Highway to Hell didn't sell more than 7 million. Maybe it's different in the US but in Europe, HTH is their signature song together with Thunderstruck. So you'd expect album sales to be closer to Back In Black than to an album like Dirty Deeds which didn't even go gold until after HTH/BIB in 1981 and is now at 6 mil.

[Ryan81]

Like sirthx2 did it's one of those albums that a lot of people have bought more than once. You gotta figure every DJ in the world has it. Every strip club in the world has it. Every sporting event arena/stadium has it. It's just kind of one of those must have albums. It definitely was a crossover album. I grew up in a little hick country western loving town and back from my brother's days in high school in the 80's to mine in the 90's every redneck had a copy of Back In Black and one of those Copenhagen hats that are shaped like a can of chew. A lot of kids had that live album from the Razor's Edge Era too, but nothing like Back In Black.

I say it's well deserved. Songs I used to not give much attention to like Let Me Put My Love Into You and What Will You Do For Money and Have A Drink On Me are now my favorites. It's a great album! Bottom line.

[whiteowl yesterday]

Twenty-five times more than Number of the Beast and Heaven and Hell.

Twelve times more than Screaming For Vengeance.

More than twice as many copies as VH1 or 1984.

How?

It’s not like they crossed genres like Shania or Garth selling to both pop and country genres. Or even Leppard hitting both pop rock and metal genres. How the hell did ACDC manage to move so many units?

because it's a great album produced by a great producer.

[Anthrax442]

Back when I listened to terrestrial classic rock/AOR radio, they never played Iron Maiden, only played You've Got Another Thing Coming from SFV, and Black Sabbath didn't exist outside of Iron Man and Paranoid.

Meanwhile, AC/DC got regular play from You Shook Me All Night Long and Back in Black, and then got occasional play of Hells Bells and Shoot to Thrill. You simply were hearing that album way more than the others.

As far as Van Halen goes, I think the problem is that you've got two albums splitting all the sales, so that for the people that just want one Van Halen album, they have to choose, not to mention the fact that that "version" of Van Halen didn't exist after 1985, so it's not like the band was continuing to push those albums for the last 38 years.

(Thirty Eight years? Good Lord I'm old)...

[BDG135]

Catchy straight-forward Rock. It has Hells Bells, but nothing too offensive. Just party rock for the most part. Stuff like Ozzy and Dio is more niche when they get into proggy territory and more songs are about dark themes.

[Mister Freeze]

If you look at the RIAA certifications, there's a notable bump in 1996-1997, selling 4 million over two years - a crazy number for a 15+ year old album.

That period overlaps with the Ballbreaker album release and world tour, so interest in the band was high.

[daveg]

The strange thing about the 25 mil, is there are no hit ballads to get the random non rock girl interested. The only slower song on the album, let me put my love..., is arguably the worst song.

One of the few albums I'll still listen start to finish.

Also, as someone else mentioned, I think people purchased multiple copies of this. I had 3 copies,

[Whatever Happened To…]

If you look at the RIAA certifications, there's a notable bump in 1996-1997, selling 4 million over two years - a crazy number for a 15+ year old album.

Remastered CD reissue.

[Love_Industry]

The strange thing about the 25 mil, is there are no hit ballads to get the random non rock girl interested.

Something about the whole album is apparently "girl-friendly". Kinda like VH's 1984 or Leppard's Hysteria. Great albums, but I've noticed that non rocker girls often love those specific albums but nothing else those bands did. One even said AC/DC sucked "except for Back in Black". I thought it may have been because she had only heard crappy albums like Blow Up Your Video and Ballbreaker, but playing Highway to Hell didn't change her mind.

[BDG135]

Do any of you think For Those About To Rock...is on par with Back In Black? The other 80s albums have some good songs, but not as many as Back In Black. Maybe they were hungry and had something to prove with a producer pushing them. The quality dropped after that.

[maninblack]

I was young in those days. I am UK. If you want blood and other such albums were getting them places. In those days no internet. When Bon Scott died it was huge news. Rock was at its peak then. In those days AC/DC were genuine badasses, not like today. Anyway add that interest in them to the new album which was absolutely superb and you got dynamite sales. They also got all over the television with their new concerts. So a mixture of the shock at the death through drinking and the circumstances of it all over the news, rock being at a peak, mtv etc, and a massively popular killer album which was viewd with huge interest in the circumstances. And thats how IMO.

[Mister Freeze]

The strange thing about the 25 mil, is there are no hit ballads to get the random non rock girl interested.

Something about the whole album is apparently "girl-friendly". Kinda like VH's 1984 or Leppard's Hysteria. Great albums, but I've noticed that non rocker girls often love those specific albums but nothing else those bands did. One even said AC/DC sucked "except for Back in Black". I thought it may have been because she had only heard crappy albums like Blow Up Your Video and Ballbreaker, but playing Highway to Hell didn't change her mind.

Girls like to dance and fuck. They don't just sit at home and cry while listening to Warrant ballads and reading Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

[Dyslexicheart]

Where I grew up, when I was 16 Back in Black was released. It instantly became our favourite record, and was played at every house party, bush party, bar, etc. for the next four years at peak levels and was easily most peoples go-to rock album. Everybody loved it and owned it.

This doesn't surprise me at all. But what surprises me is that two albums after a 25 million seller, AC/DC struggled to sell more than gold with FotS, FotW and BUYV.

Also that Highway to Hell didn't sell more than 7 million. Maybe it's different in the US but in Europe, HTH is their signature song together with Thunderstruck. So you'd expect album sales to be closer to Back In Black than to an album like Dirty Deeds which didn't even go gold until after HTH/BIB in 1981 and is now at 6 mil.

Well you need to understand that once everyone bought Back in Black, all the old Bon albums started appearing in the stores that we'd never seen before, and everybody started buying all those too. The reason sales dipped after BiB is simple - the albums that came after weren't that good, and we all had lots of great AC/DC to listen to already.

[Love_Industry]

Do any of you think For Those About To Rock...is on par with Back In Black? The other 80s albums have some good songs, but not as many as Back In Black.

The same applies to FTATR. It's basically Blow Up Your Video with Back in Black production. Two killer and a lot of filler.

[LAglamrocker]

6 million bought it 4xs over lifetime..not that impressive
Lp
Casesette
CD few times
Hipster LP

AC DC was always C- band
If you see someone wearing AC DC shirt chances are = idiot

[Psychobolia.com]

Half those copies were bought by drunk or blind people who thought they were ordering Amy Winehouse's Back to Black album on Amazon.

[daveg]

Do any of you think For Those About To Rock...is on par with Back In Black? The other 80s albums have some good songs, but not as many as Back In Black.

The same applies to FTATR. It's basically Blow Up Your Video with Back in Black production. Two killer and a lot of filler.

For Those was a pretty poor follow up. Had some decent songs, but apart from title track, a casual fan couldn't name one other tune.

[Whatever Happened To…]

For Those was a pretty poor follow up. Had some decent songs, but apart from title track, a casual fan couldn't name one other tune.

Fuck, I don't think I could either.

[the_man_incognito]

For Those was a pretty poor follow up. Had some decent songs, but apart from title track, a casual fan couldn't name one other tune.

Fuck, I don't think I could either.

As a kid, I got this album from the cut out bin...and I listened to it a decent amount...
The only other one I remember is 'COD'

[tooth]

Well you need to understand that once everyone bought Back in Black, all the old Bon albums started appearing in the stores that we'd never seen before, and everybody started buying all those too. The reason sales dipped after BiB is simple - the albums that came after weren't that good, and we all had lots of great AC/DC to listen to already.

Exactly, after the letdown that was FTATR, people went backwards with the collecting & listening.

[HottKarl777]

Because Back In Black (title track) has the greatest riff of all fucking time on it. Malcolm Young managed to write a riff even better than Zeppelin wrote, which is impossible.



I'm not even bullshitting. Greatest riff of all fucking time.