Motley Crue vs The Darkness

In repsonse to Misty's blog post (please read first)...Was Motley Crue a serious band? Yes they were. Though yes, in their later years they moved into the dangerous area of hair metal, but prior to that, Too Fast For Love and Shout at the Devil are two of the best, serious metal records out there. We can call it 80's metal but only because those two albums existed in the 80's and not because they are indicative of bands thought of as traditional 80's metal, i.e. Cinderella, Warrant and Poison, to name a few.

To put it in perspective you have to consider what was currently happening on Sunset Strip at the birth of the Crue. Punk and glam were dying out and heavier, dirtier bands were emerging and taking their cues from the bands that came before. Hence the make-up and giant hair, though the sound was anything but pretty. This was also the era of Guns n’ Roses, a more refined version of Motley Crue. What we don’t realize, twenty years later, is that prior to G n’R no metal/rock sound like that existed simultaneously with the costume aspects of glam . One could say that Motely Crue were pioneers in that time and that G n’R were their protégé, taking the best aspects of the Crue and leaving the schlock behind (leather boy outfits). Of course the argument can go one further to say that Motely Crue were just following in the footsteps of Kiss.

What is ironic about Tommy Lee’s interview on Rhapsody is that he is actually missing the point of The Darkness for The Darkness are not really poking fun at metal bands. They are borrowing all that is great from metal and creating a fresh, new metal sound for the millennia and the metal persona that they are borrowing from is not even American Metal. It’s English Metal. Hello? Saxon.

Tommy Lee perceives The Darkness to be making fun of [metal] rock, but in truth it is quite obvious that The Darkness is only honoring metal and their forbearers. They are reviving a dying art and bringing back the true nature of the rock, albeit they are doing it in stripped spandex, but one must realize had these boys grown up in the Midwest, they would be reviving this metal genre in pink, metallic spandex, not matte pink and white stripes. Here, The Darkness is fulfilling its past while taking cues from English metal culture and societal norms.

Perhaps Tommy Lee projects his distaste for this form of metal because he is not settled with his own hair-metal past? While the first two Crue albums were raw, gut-grinding, headbanging masterpieces worthy of serious reflection, we cannot ignore the beginning of the end of the band on Theatre of Pain and of course the final demise of true metal and its reception into full-fledged, hair-metal on Girls, Girls, Girls.

In conclusion, it is obvious that one cannot compare Motley Crue to The Darkness and the pictures included speak for themselves. Which one of these don't belong? Though they are both metal bands, they each come from competing genres within the metal spectrum. American vs. English. Heavy Metal vs. Schlock Metal and, finally, Hair-Metal vs. Working Class Metal.

For further information check out the entry in Wikipedia it’s pretty informative, however I do not agree with some of the bands they consider hair metal. Girlschool? Come on.