The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins has been a successful YouTuber, posting videos about other artists on his channel. The singer talks about his career moments and memories with other acts and shares opinions on popular bands and musicians. In a recent video, Hawkins reacted to his followers’ controversial music opinions while also reflecting on Harry Styles.
“I mean, I might have mentioned this at the end of the Harry Styles episode,” recalled Hawkins. The musician had released an episode about Styles a few weeks ago and said he’s starting to warm up to him as a performer. Hawkins had admitted that he was initially skeptical about the pop star, but with time, he started admiring him thanks to his creativity and personality.
Later on, Hawkins discussed Harry Styles’ hit song, ‘As It Was,’ and named another track Styles drew inspiration from. He said, “You know that song that goes, ‘As it was/ As it was.’ Please don’t copyright. The one that goes, ‘As is was/ As it was.’ It sort of sounds like A-ha’s ‘Take On Me.’”
He later claimed, “I was thinking, like in 40 years of time, after another 40 years have passed, it has been about 40 years since A-ha’s ‘Take On Me,’ so another 40 years passes, and somebody does a song that sounds like A-ha’s ‘Take On Me,’ they’re not going to say, nobody’s going to say, ‘Oh! That sounds like the Harry Styles song ‘As It Was.’ They’re still going to be saying, ‘That sounds like A-ha’s ‘Take On Me’ from the 1980s.’”
“But I don’t think that’s true of all bands,” Hawkins noted to defend some musicians’ efforts. He continued, “I think some people are definitely trying to expand on the noble work that all musicians have been putting in since the beginning of recorded music. People are definitely trying. There are more breakthroughs to come. I’m sure of it.”
A-ha first released ‘Take On Me’ in October 1984, but it failed to chart in the United Kingdom. Later, the band re-released the song in 1985 and gained worldwide recognition with six awards and a nomination for two others at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards. The song currently has 1,5 billion views on YouTube. Since it’s such a popular song, many people instantly recognized the resemblance of it with Harry Styles’ ‘As It Was,’ as Hawkins mentioned in his new video.
