‘You’ve been Thunderstruck’: AC/DC joins YouTube elite

AC/DC has been doing dirty deeds for decades. By cracking one billion views for a single video on YouTube, the rock legends get another one done.

The Rock And Roll Hall of Famers become just the fifth Australian artist — and first homegrown group — to pass the billion streams milestone with a single clip.

The track that got them there? 1990’s ‘Thunderstruck’, the lead single from The Razors Edge.

‘Thunderstruck’ was a thunderbolt at a time when music scenes were splintering, evolving or just plain dying.

The Summer of Love had come and gone in the U.K., changing music and clubbing along the way. Baggy, Indie, and Rave was in, Brit Pop was coming.

In the U.S., Grunge was coming to wipe away the stink of Hair Metal and cheese.

Watch AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’:

‘Thunderstuck,’ built around Angus Young’s hammer-on heavy riff, and Brian Johnson’s wonderfully dumb-as-a-hammer lyric, is AC/DC doing AC/DC, and flicking the devil’s horns at trends and fads.

Its music video was filmed by longtime collaborator David Mallet (Queen, David Bowie, Iron Maiden) at the Brixton Academy in South London, in August 1990, with hundreds of screamers in the room handed free Akka Dakka shirts and told to cut loose.

With ‘Thunderstruck’ blowing past the one-billion streams benchmark, AC/DC, inducted into ARIA Hall of Fame at the inaugural ceremony in 1988, and in the Rock Hall in 2003, are now members of the YouTube elite.

Check out a list of music videos by Australian artists with over one billion views on YouTube.

AC/DC – ‘Thunderstruck’ (1 billion)

Iggy Azalea – ‘Fancy’ ft. Charli XCX (1 billion)

Sia – ‘Elastic Heart’ feat. Shia LaBeouf & Maddie Ziegler (1.1 billion)

Sia – ‘Cheap Thrills’ (Lyric Video) ft. Sean Paul (1.6 billion)

Gotye – ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ (feat. Kimbra) (1.7 billion)

Tones And I – ‘Dance Monkey‘ (1.7 billion)

Sia – ‘Chandelier’ (2.4 billion)

Source: YouTube data, Global, lifetime (as of 05 November 2021)

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.