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===Genres=== AC/DC's music has been variously described as [[hard rock]],<ref name="Baker History of">{{cite journal |first1=Glenn A. |last1=Baker |author-link1=Glenn A. Baker |editor-last=Heatley |editor-first=Michael |editor-link=Michael Heatley |year=1984 |journal=[[The History of Rock (magazine)|The History of Rock]] |title=''High Voltage'': The Positive Charge of AC/DC |publisher=Orbis Publishing |location=London |volume=10 |page=2227}}</ref> [[blues rock]],{{sfn|McParland|2018|pp=57–58}} and [[Heavy metal music|heavy metal]],<ref name="Morse">{{cite news |first=Steve |last=Morse |date=6 January 1982 |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article126869893 |title=AC-DC, the Biggest Seller |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=56 |issue=16,902 |page=11 |access-date=6 February 2024 |via=[[National Library of Australia]]}}</ref> but they have referred to themselves as "a [[rock and roll]] band, nothing more, nothing less".{{sfn|Engleheart|1997}} Malcolm recalled honing their craft. "We'd been playing up to four gigs a day. That really shaped the band... It was a mix of screw you, Jack, and having a good time and all being pretty tough guys... The training ground was Melbourne."{{sfn|Jenkins|Meldrum|2007}} In the opinion of [[Stephen Thomas Erlewine]] of [[AllMusic]], they are "one of the defining acts of '70s hard rock" and reactionary to the period's [[art rock]] and [[arena rock]] excesses. "AC/DC's rock was minimalist – no matter how huge and bludgeoning their guitar chords were, there was a clear sense of space and restraint."<ref name="AutoJ4-66">{{cite web|last1=Erlewine|first1=Stephen Thomas|author-link1=Stephen Thomas Erlewine|date=n.d.|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ac-dc-mn0000574772/biography|title=AC/DC|publisher=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=7 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619163125/https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ac-dc-mn0000574772/biography|archive-date=19 June 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> According to [[Alexis Petridis]], their music is "hard-edged, wilfully basic blues-rock," featuring humorous sexual innuendo and lyrics about rock and roll.<ref name="AutoJ4-67">{{cite news|last=Petridis|first=Alexis|date=26 October 2008|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/oct/27/acdc-music-recession|title=Things Really Must Be Bad – AC/DC Are No 1 Again|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=7 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116093704/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/oct/27/acdc-music-recession|archive-date=16 November 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Music academic Robert McParland described the band's sound as being defined by the heavy rock guitar of the Young brothers, layered [[power chord]]s and forceful vocals.{{sfn|McParland|2018|pp=57–58}} "For some, AC/DC are the ultimate heavy metal act," [[Tim Jonze]] wrote in ''[[The Guardian]]'', "but for others, AC/DC aren't a heavy metal act at all, they're a classic rock band – and calling them heavy metal is an act of treachery."<ref name="AutoJ4-68">{{cite news|last=Jonze|first=Tim|author-link=Tim Jonze|date=14 April 2009|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/apr/15/heavy-metal-music|title=A Handy Guide to Heavy Metal|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=7 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180808051647/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/apr/15/heavy-metal-music|archive-date=8 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> On the controversy of categorising their music, McParland wrote:{{sfn|McParland|2018|pp=57–58}} {{blockquote|AC/DC will assert that they are not specifically a metal band. Their music—loud, hard, and guitar-driven—may best be described as hard rock. However, there are people who will say that they are indisputably metal. Therein lies the ongoing problem of categorisation. While AC/DC has referenced the underworld and they have given their listeners 'Highway to Hell' and 'Hell's Bells,' their songs are constructed on straightforward major and minor power chords. They are not modally developed as are a good deal of heavy metal compositions. Their sound is loud and crisp, not muddy or down-tuned.}} With the recording of ''Back in Black'' in 1980, rock journalist Joe S. Harrington believed the band had departed further from the blues-oriented rock of their previous albums and toward a more dynamic attack that adopted punk rock's "high-energy implications" and transmuted their hard rock/heavy metal songs into "more pop-oriented blasts". The band would remain faithful to this "impeccably ham-handed" musical style for the remainder of their career: "the guitars were compacted into a singular statement of rhythmic efficiency, the rhythm section provided the thunderhorse overdrive and vocalist Johnson bellowed and brayed like the most unhinged practitioner of bluesy top-man dynamics since vintage [[Robert Plant]]."{{sfn|Harrington|2003}}
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