The Genre Classification That AC/DC’s Brian Johnson Didn’t Think Embodied Their Music Well: “Covers a Lot of Sins”

Genre boundaries have never been foolproof ways of describing music. Music is too diverse to be wrapped up in little boxes. But genre lines are necessary evils. They work well enough to help listeners easily tell whether they will enjoy a musician or where to direct fellow fans.

AC/DC’s Brian Johnson once spoke about the confusion surrounding genre classifications for the band’s music. He expressed both frustration and understanding when dissecting the term “classic rock.”

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The Genre Term That AC/DC’s Brian Johnson Didn’t Think Embodied Their Music

“Classic rock” is an umbrella term that really doesn’t make much sense when you dissect it. What years were classic for rock? What sounds does that encompass? These questions aren’t easy to answer, making this term almost moot.

Johnson once spoke about classic rock, noting that AC/DC was considered part of this genre. He called it a way to cover “a lot of sins,” comparing it to the idea of just plain old “classical music.”

“Classic rock is the same as what people might call classical music,” Johnson once said. “It covers a lot of sins, that. There’s a lot of great classical music out there, but there are also some bloody dirges. Some of them, German operas, last for three days. I don’t wanna hear it. It’s not classical. It’s just a dirge.”

Johnson makes a fair point. AC/DC is considered in the same genre as many other, completely different bands. How could every rocker from the 50s to the 80s be described in the same way? However, he continued to speak about being counted among this undefinable genre, conceding that classic rock is less about the specifics and more about how it makes the listener feel.

“With classic rock, it’s stuff that stays with you as you’re growing older, and sometimes, it even gets better when you grow older, and you understand it more,” he continued. “You don’t need to bang your head up and down all of the time; you can enjoy it by sitting and driving in your car with a big smile on your face, that’s classic rock. It’s not pop; I’m sure there’s some classic pop songs, but classic rock is the stuff that you remember.”

Classic rock definitely isn’t a great descriptor when you get down to it, but it does encompass generations of rock that feel like the building blocks of the genre in its modern form.

(Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage)