Editing AC/DC (section)

===Lyrics assessment===
Throughout the band's career, their songs have been criticised as simplistic,<ref name="Donoughue">{{Cite web |first=Paul |last=Donoughue |date=22 November 2017 |title=What Learning 70 AC/DC Riffs Taught Lindsay McDougall About Malcolm Young |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-20/malcolm-young-lindsay-mcdougall-guitar-riffs-legacy/9167796 |publisher=[[Double J (radio station)|Double J]] ([[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] (ABC)) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180325040049/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-20/malcolm-young-lindsay-mcdougall-guitar-riffs-legacy/9167796 |archive-date=25 March 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=27 January 2024}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> monotonous,<ref name="Diepstraten">{{Cite magazine |last=Mitchell |first=Matt |date=2 March 2024 |title=Time Capsule: AC/DC: Highway to Hell |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/ac-dc/time-capsule-ac-dc-highway-to-hell |magazine=[[Paste (magazine)|Paste]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240323172936/https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/ac-dc/time-capsule-ac-dc-highway-to-hell |archive-date=23 March 2024 |url-status=live |access-date=3 June 2024}}</ref> deliberately lowbrow and sexist.<ref name="McCabe">{{Cite web |first=Kathy |last=McCabe |date=12 November 2014 |title=New AC/DC Music Video for 'Play Ball' Is Big on Sports and Sexist Shots. And Minus Phil Rudd |url=http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/new-acdc-music-video-for-play-ball-is-big-on-sports-and-sexist-shots-and-minus-phil-rudd/news-story/90a1351915fc582c46df631552119317 |publisher=[[news.com.au]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240127085004/https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/new-acdc-music-video-for-play-ball-is-big-on-sports-and-sexist-shots-and-minus-phil-rudd/news-story/90a1351915fc582c46df631552119317 |archive-date=27 January 2024 |url-status=live |access-date=27 January 2024}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> David Marchese from ''Vulture'' wrote that "regardless of the lyricist, whether it was Scott (who was capable of real wit and colour), Johnson, or the Young brothers, there's a deep strain of [[misogyny]] in the band's output that veers from feeling terribly dated to straight-up reprehensible."<ref name="Marchese" /> According to Christgau in 1988, "the brutal truth is that sexism has never kept a great rock-and-roller down—from [[Muddy Waters|Muddy]] to [[Lemmy]], lots of dynamite music has objectified women in objectionable ways. But rotely is not among those ways", in regards to AC/DC.{{sfn|Christgau|1990}}

Fans of the band have defended their music by highlighting its "bawdy humour",<ref name="Sturges">{{cite news|last=Sturges|first=Fiona|date=2 October 2017|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/oct/02/songs-that-hate-women-and-the-women-who-love-them-why-im-still-a-fan-of-acdc|title=Songs that Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them: Why I'm Still a Fan of AC/DC|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=10 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810210457/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/oct/02/songs-that-hate-women-and-the-women-who-love-them-why-im-still-a-fan-of-acdc|archive-date=10 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> while members of the group have generally been dismissive of claims that their songs are sexist, arguing that they are meant to be in jest.<ref name="Marchese" /> In an interview with [[Sylvie Simmons]] for ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]'', Angus called the band "pranksters more than anything else," while Malcolm said, "We're not like some macho band. We take the music far more seriously than we take the lyrics, which are just throwaway lines."<ref name="Sturges" /> Marchese regarded the musical aspect of the Youngs' songs as "strong enough to render the words a functional afterthought" as well as "deceptively plain, devastatingly effective, and extremely lucrative."<ref name="Marchese" />

For the book ''Under My Thumb: Songs That Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them'', ''The Guardian'' arts critic Fiona Sturges contributed an essay evaluating her love for AC/DC. While acknowledging she is a feminist and that the band's music is problematic for her, she believed it would be "daft as opposed to damaging" for female listeners if they could understand the band to be "a bunch of archly sex-obsessed idiots with sharp tunes and some seriously killer riffs". Despite the "unpleasant sneering quality" of "Carry Me Home"{{'}}s claims about a woman who "ain't no lady", the "rape fantasy" of "Let Me Put My Love into You" and the generally one-dimensional portrayals of women, Sturges said songs such as "Whole Lotta Rosie" and "You Shook Me All Night Long" demonstrated that the female characters "are also having a good time and are, more often than not, in the driving seat in sexual terms. [...] [I]t's the men who come over as passive and hopeless, awestruck in the presence of sexual partners more experienced and adept than them."<ref name="Sturges" />