A Dirty Deed?

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

I came to appreciate hard rock relatively late in life, and one of the acts I enjoy is AC/DC. They obviously had an extremely rough background, which they parlayed into some real down and dirty working class hits.

Recently, however, they went the way of all commerce as they

inked a deal with retail leviathan Wal-Mart to sell their albums exclusively through the Sam Walton consortium, joining the ranks of artists like The Eagles, Garth Brooks and Journey.

Sure enough, this has turned out to be very successful for the band as

A huge push edged the band's new album Black Ice close to platinum status a week after its release.

A Wal-Mart exclusivity deal is credited with helping Angus Young & co. reach the 780,000 sales mark in a single week. "The new CD release represents the fastest-selling album for Wal-Mart this year," the Sam Walton empire revealed in a press release.

As the man says,

Could this success represent a sea change in brick-and-mortar record sales? Signs point to yes, which means big-box stores may move ahead with similar distribution deals like Best Buy's exclusive rights to Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy. Let's hope the heart of the music industry isn't left behind in the process.

Here's a question as salient: When and if AC/DC tours, will Angus Young expose his now-53-year-old knees?