Style

Though the band are typically classified as heavy metal or speed metal, Lemmy has stated that he never considered Motörhead a metal band. When asked if he has a problem with Motörhead being called a metal band, he replied: "I do, because I come from way before Metal. I’m playing Rock n’ Roll and I think Rock n’ Roll should be sacred – it is to me. I don’t see why it should not be for everybody else."

In a biography of the band, senior editor for Allmusic, Stephen Erlewine, wrote: "Motörhead's overwhelmingly loud and fast style of heavy metal was one of the most groundbreaking styles the genre had to offer in the late '70s." and though "Motörhead wasn't punk rock ... they were the first metal band to harness that energy and, in the process, they created speed metal and thrash metal." Whether they created these genres might be subject to debate, but Motörhead were unquestionably influential.

Lemmy has stated that he generally feels more kinship with punk rockers than with metal bands: Motörhead had gigs with fellow Brits The Damned, with whom he played bass on a handful of late 1970s gigs, as well as having penned the song "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." as a tribute to the Ramones. Motörhead, Lemmy states, have more in common aesthetically with The Damned than Black Sabbath, and nothing whatsoever in common with Judas Priest. Lemmy says he feels little kinship with the speed metal bands Motörhead have inspired: They've just got the wrong bit. They think that being fast and loud is the whole thing and it isn't. The guitar solos are not really difficult for a guitar player, it's just playing scales. To feel a solo and bend into it & I mean Hendrix is the best guitarist you've ever seen in your life. And he learned from people like Buddy Guy, Lightnin' Hopkins and people like that inspired Hendrix. To be influenced by something, you're gonna have to play it the same.

Of the genre debate itself Lemmy was more forthright when Joel McIver spoke to him for an interview published in the January 2000 edition of Record Collector. He asked him if he thought some people get confused between hard rock and soft metal and all the other categories. Lemmy replied "Cunt metal? Spunk metal? Left-handed metal? Right-handed metal? Upwardly-mobile metal? This term "heavy metal" is only rock'n'roll anyway, because metal bands are the logical successors to Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly". The NME stated that their brief solos were just long enough "...to open another bottle of beer", while a 1977 Stereo Review commented that "they know they're like animals, and they don't want to appear any other way. In view of the many ugly frogs in heavy metal who think they are God's gift to womankind these Quasimodos even seem charming in their own way". Motörhead's approach has not changed drastically over the band's career, though this is a deliberate choice: erstwhile Motörhead drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor said that rock icons like Chuck Berry and Little Richard never drastically altered their style, and, like them, Motörhead preferred to play what they enjoyed and did best. This fondness for the first decade of rock and roll (mid-1950s to mid-1960s) is also reflected in some of Motörhead's occasional cover songs from that era.