AC/DC Invades Wal-Mart Nation

With traditional brick and mortar music retailers going out of business and big box stores reducing the space slated for CDs, some artists are looking for exclusive deals to push their product. AC/DC and Wal-Mart have teamed up to create a store-within-a-store for their new album Black Ice, which the Arkansas based retail giant will sell exclusively. The Eagles were the last band to try to Wal-Mart only option with Long Road Out Of Eden, 2007's 5th best selling album (3.1 million copies). The Eagles, however, didn't have Rock Band. AC/DC's in store promotion include their back catalog albums on sale, DVDs, t-shirts, as well as the popular rock n roll video game.

Say what you will about Wal-Mart, but they have gotten retail down to a science. Hurricane coming? Stock stores with more board games and snack foods. After the hurricane has come and gone? Beer. For a music industry in decline, the exclusive deals with retailers might be the best option. Best Buy has recently announced it will be the only store to carry Guns N' Rose's Chinese Democracy and depending how both it and Black Ice sell could signal a shift in the way music is marketed and sold. Of course, you could always just pull a Madonna and try to generate interest in your failing album by getting a high profile divorce.

Wal-Mart and AC/DC Agree: Money Talks!

Happy Birthday Madonna

Today, the Queen of Pop turns 50. I know its fashionable to crack grandma jokes but think about it, this woman has been defining pop for half her life now and is one of the few people in all of popular music who has been able to sustain a career for such a long time. At age 49 she topped the album charts with Hard Candy and surely that must be a record for oldest person to do so, but alas, it is not. In fact, in the top five oldest people to have a number one album, none of them are woman.

Oldest Living Chart Toppers

1. Neil Diamond age 67 - "Home Before Dark" (2008)
2. Bob Dylan age 65 - "Modern Times" (2006)
3. Louis Armstrong age 62 - "Hello Dolly!" (1964)
4. Rod Stewart age 61 - "Still The Same...Great Rock Classics Of Our Times" (2006)
5. The Eagles all age 60 - "Long Road Out Of Eden" (2007)

Top female: Barbara Streisand age 51 "Back To Broadway" (1993)

She's still got eleven years before she can crack the top 5 but only two years until she has the opportunity to top Streisand's record. It seems like its a record you wouldn't really want, oldest living chart topper, but thinking about the alternative, either being dead or not having enough people care about your music to buy it, it's a pretty good record to have.

Here's a video of her 1984 performance of "Like A Virgin" at the Video Music Awards. If it wasn't for this, there would have been no Britney-Madonna kiss.