Whores.

I meant “than [not and] Back in Black specifically,” of course.

A few notes:

It’s worth remembering that there were/are regional variations in the AOR key acts. I remember being surprised in the late ’80s to discover that a southern AOR station doing an all-time greatest rock hits put Van Halen on the very top.

I don’t have access to the catalog sales, but it wouldn’t surprise me if AC/DC were less interested in protecting catalog sales in general and Back in Black specifically.

There’s a whole sequence of releases available to AC/DC, even if they want to stay away from iTunes (for royalty reasons or whatever): first a double-disc greatest hits with one disc for the Bon Scott years and another for the Brian Johnson era, then a single-disc “very best of.” If this deal works out well for Wal-Mart, the chain should lean on them to do the double-disc greatest hits next year. (Funny how Wal-Mart becomes a much more important player in this decision than Columbia.)

@Chris Molanphy:
I have been a lurker for a loooong time, but since I was just emailing with a guy I worked with back in 1990 about our old days in radio, I guess I felt compelled to chime in.

The hertiage station I grew up listening to in the early to mid 80s I ended up working on air at as a 20 year old in 1990. Before that year, the core artists were Zeppelin (almost every daypart, btw), Stones, Who, Beatles, etc. And “Sweet Child o’ Mine” was dayparted to after 12 noon, even though it was a number-one CHR single. When the new PD came in in 1990, he was the one to pick up the pace–and made sure we played a Boston song every hour and 15 minutes. It’s taken me 18 years to like “More than a Feeling” again.

@Figgsrock: This is excellent feedback, thanks! (And I don’t mind the caveat at all.) I’m with Al–keep in touch.

@Thierry: I’m sure their royalty on CDs, even before the Wal-Mart deal, is way better than what they get on downloads. Irving Azoff said as much when he explained why the Eagles went to Wal-Mart and blew off iTunes last year. Actually, that’s part of what I’m aiming to puncture with this whole column: Angus Young’s obnoxiously disingenuous reason for sticking with albums, like it’s some artistic move. Give Azoff and those greedy Eagles credit: at least they’re totally blunt about their motivations.

@2ironic4u: I guess Figgsrock should comment here, but my memories of the mid-’80s jibe with his: AOR was more of an Eagles-Who-Stones format going into the ’80s, with Zeppelin thrown in because they were massive and unavoidable. But true metal was too dangerous for their air until at least Appetite for Destruction, and even then sparingly. In a way, this is what made MTV so important to the ’80s metal boom: even before “Headbangers’ Ball,” they were the ones consistently playing metal, not radio–not until the last few years, and then Nirvana came along.

One thing that might be helpful in this discussion would be knowing the band’s royalty rates on downloads vs. actual cds. If what they get from iTunes is only a share of what they get from physical sales, why bother risking losing out on physical sales?

In any case, I agree that the argument that AC/DC’s albums should be taken as a piece is a bit absurd, unless you want to see them as an endless flow of concept albums about sex and guitar riffs.