Are Bands Singular or Plural?

I’m really into music, so I read a lot of articles about bands. Something I come across often is the discrepancy with referring to a band as a singular or plural entity. So today’s blog is going to dive into that topic. 

The answer is pretty simple. According to American English rules, when you’re referring to a band as a collective whole, treat it as a singular noun. When you’re referring to individuals within the band, you’re talking about something plural. 

If this is so straight forward, then why do I see so many writers not following this rule? That’s because when we use a band’s name in a sentence, we typically treat it as singular or plural depending on how it sounds. Here are some examples. 

The Heartbreakers were so much fun to see live.

Motion City Soundtrack is my favorite band of all time. 

The Black Mages were a musical group from Japan that played music from the Final Fantasy video games. 

Chevelle is a band that I can’t stop listening to. 

State Champs have lots of catchy pop-punk songs. 

The Rapture Twins are a musical duo from Minneapolis that not many people know of.

Something else that muddies the waters is the fact that in British English, it’s much more common to refer to all band names as plural. I’ll often find myself on UK music sites without realizing it, which explains why I see the plural used so much. Here are some examples of that.

Weezer are a band that have so many hits. 

Using American English, it would be written like this.

Weezer is a band that has so many hits. 

That’s all for today. I hope you enjoyed this post and found it informative. Check back soon for another. Thanks for reading.