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June 9, 2008

Highway To Wal-Mart

thumbnail icon: Highway To Wal-Mart

As the Wall Street Journal first reported, AC/DC are following in the path blazed by Eagles, Garth Brooks, and Journey, becoming the next big-time band selling a CD exclusively through Wal-Mart. Eagles and Garth, et al, made lite-rock (and country) sense. From an aesthetic standpoint, though, the guys behind TNT, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Powerage, For Those About to Rock (We Salute You), Back In Black, the aforementioned Highway To Hell, and the name "AC/DC"? Takes big balls, mates. It's the Brendan O'Brien-produced follow-up to 2000's Stiff Upper Lip, and though it'll officially be part of the Columbia catalog, you'll only be able to grab it by going into your neighborhood Wal-Mart when it's out this fall. Also, according to the NY Times, Fleetwood Mac could be next ... tusk, tusk. Thing is, Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden has gone almost triple platinum, so obviously there's incentive in this dying market. Remember, before iTunes recently took its place, Wal-Mart was the biggest music retailer in the States.

Posted at 5:24 PM by brandon
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6 Comments

hmm.. Walmart is trying to appeal to all the middle aged guys who got drunk and lost their virginity to Highway to Hell back in 1979 and thought they would never stop rocking... except now they are fat, have a crappy job, a naggy wife, and kids who beg for crap at the toy section. cool.

Posted by: Samuel at 06/09/08 6:34 PM | Reply
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The Eagles disc isn't exclusively at Wal-Mart. Our store could order it the week it was released from a nationwide distributor. Thing that sucks most about this is that we sell a ton of AC/DC and I've been fielding "When's the new album coming out?" questions for the past two years, so it could've been a strong seller for us. But if it's reported as only at Wal-Mart then that potential business jumps ship.

Posted by: Zachra at 06/09/08 6:46 PM | Reply
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Well, they do sell their T-Shirts so this isn't much of a surprise. *sighs*

Posted by: Random Person at 06/10/08 12:50 AM | Reply
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On that last statement, when I said "their cds", I meant cds that are sold at walmart(edited, robbed of artisticness), not ac/dcs.

Posted by: ben at 06/10/08 11:35 AM | Reply
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Fantastic. It's a good thing I already don't shop at walmart for their cds. Otherwise this new ac/dc/walmart deal would actually come into eyesight. Does this mean that their new cd will be nowhere else? The pollution of it will not reach best buy or target, or any of the better retail stores?

Posted by: ben at 06/10/08 11:37 AM | Reply
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people will care less about things like this when we're all microchipped, gas is $10 a gallon, and the North American Union / Amero take effect. what's that? Spain bought the Pennsylvania Turnpike? awesome!

Posted by: sigh at 06/10/08 1:29 PM | Reply
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