AC/DC - Have A Drink On Me

As a 17 year old who's music taste is mostly centred on the 21st century I find the negative comments about music from this time made frequently by older people quite eyeroll worthy and bothersome.

It's quite common that you'll hear older people who (mostly) were born before 1990 complain. Whether it's Lady Gaga and her ridiculous costumes and outfits and other attention seeking antics, the latest pop song that is very risqué, raunchy and slutty, the use of autotune giving complete talentless skanks like Ke$ha the ability to sell a ton load of music and make a lot of money or other things that are brainwashing the younger generation into liking crap music and doing irresponsible things.*[1]

Of course they seem to forget that this "bad music" like they describe has always been around. Controversial themes that are both musical elements and non musical elements have been around for ages. One of Lady Gaga's biggest inspirations is Madonna, who has been one of the worlds biggest pop stars ever since the early '80s. Many of Madonna's film clips were boundary pushing, risqué, over the top and controversial. "Like A Prayer" was one of her biggest and most memorable hits. The lyrics had references to religion and had sexual innuendo. The song today is considered a classic in many people eyes yet exhibits things that are common in some of the music out there today.

The above paragraph is just one example. Of course I could go on for ages but I simply don't want to (well at least not in this review :P ). I also want to get on to reviewing the actual song.

It's pretty obvious by the title what this song is about even before listening to it. I did a search to see what was the meaning of the lyrics after I listened to it, just in case I misinterpreted it. Quoted from this website*[2] I found that many believed the song to be about this, "This song was written as a salute to Bon Scott and his infamous "drinking binges"." I find it interesting that Bon Scott's death was due to choking on his own vomit due to drinking lots of alcohol.

Of course many older people (and even some younger people) consider AC/DC to be an amazing classic band and one of the best of all time. Many of their songs have high review averages on this site giving evidence that supports this point. I am constantly annoyed by this.

It's possibly due to my young age but I see nothing special in AC/DC at all. Aside from a small selection of their catalogue most of their songs range from tolerable but nothing special all the way to horrible. The vocals are usually very shouty and unpleasant. The lyrics usually do nothing for me. Usually most of the instrumentation sounds the same to me in each of their songs.

Now back to the 5th paragraph/section of the review. As I said before this is a tribute to Bon Scott who was known for his infamous drinking binges. The fact that so many people hate on newer music for lyrical content about drinking (as an example I'll use "TiK ToK" by Ke$ha) but yet give this song and others by the band such glowing reviews frustrates me. This song is practically setting the same bad examples that many see in "TiK ToK". Of course I don't think it sets as much as a potentially bad example as does "TiK ToK" but it still sets a bad example. Like with people listening to "TiK ToK" and coping Ke$ha's behaviour which has been deemed trashy and unacceptable people could copy the behaviour of this band. While I'm not heartless and saying there is a problem with writing a song that is a tribute to a much loved person who passed away I do have a problem with it being a tribute to Scott's drinking behaviour.

In my eyes drinking irresponsibly like Scott was known for is unacceptable. The fact that his passing was due to drinking irresponsibly further strengthens that. So to make a tribute to that behaviour in my opinion is bad. The behaviour that Ke$ha displays which many deem as unacceptable could be compared to this. Which makes me angry as you won't here any older people comment on how this song is a bad influence, in fact a lot of them will probably be getting shitfaced while listening to this exact song.

For anyone who reads my reviews you might wonder why I've been so harsh on this while I like Ke$ha's music. Ke$ha first appeared in the music industry in 2009 on the Flo Rida song "Right Round". At that point she was unknown to me and many but later in the year she would release "TiK ToK". Being only 13 years old at the time I wasn't as mature as I am today and didn't really care so much about deeper meanings in music. That was 4 years ago and nostalgia plays a part in why I still like Ke$ha's music despite having lots of flaws which I'm willing to admit exist despite enjoying her music.

To add to what I said about "TiK ToK" at least its vocals despite being bad at least are hilariously bad. This has no benefit. I find nothing hilarious about shouty, unpleasant vocals which to me are as bad if not worse than Ke$ha's vocals but most won't complain about AC/DC. Lyrics and vocals aside this song is void of anything interesting or likeable whatsoever.

So this is basically a summary of why I hate when older people complain about the music of today having lost meaning. If I spent longer researching and finding more examples that make these older people's claims sound stupid and meaningless I'm sure I'd be able to find enough to make ten reviews of this size. Of course after spending so much time writing this I have no motivation to write another review of this size so soon after this :P

So in short, older people need to get over themselves and stop complaining about things that have been existent in music for ages.

*[1] Just as a disclaimer this paragraph is written from the viewpoint of the people who complain and not me.

*[2] http://songmeanings.com/m/songs/view/6075/

P.S. As you can probably tell I'm against drinking alcohol and have never drunk alcohol before and have no intention of doing so ever in my life.