AC/DC winning the APRA Award for Most Played Australian Song Internationally this week was met with a lot of `what tha` type comments when it was announced at the awards dinner on Tuesday night. So why that song 30 years after it was released?
Also, why that song, why not their new one ‘Rock and Roll Train’.Undercover posed the question to someone from the AC/DC camp who had a possible explanation.
Simply put, there are a lot more classic rock stations in America than Top 40 rock stations.
‘Rock and Roll Train’ had a limited life we were told. “That song wasn’t/isn’t on rotation at rock stations,” she said. “There are more classic rock stations than rock”.
While ‘Rock and Roll Train’ got a lot of spins, it was over a short period of time. “Classic rock will play the same shit every day including the AC/DC song,” she said.
Also rock stations look mainly to the current chart for their playlists. “Rock stations play mostly songs currently in the top 40, playlist kind of stuff. Classic rock stations play the same songs everyday, all year long”.
While winning the award is great news for AC/DC, it is kind of sad that Australian didn’t have anything new to take the award. The Veronicas were basically the only Aussie act to have much of an impact overseas last year. Wolfmother were not active in 2008. They won the award last year. Jet won the award for the previous year with the same song ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’.
I was interested to see if The Veronicas came close. “They don’t get much airplay here at all,” she said, despite them selling over one million downloads last year in the States.
So the APRA for Most Played Australian Work Overseas went to ‘Highway To Hell’ by AC/DC ... legitimately.
