Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:The rule in English is that singular nouns, even those referring to groups, get treated as singular unless you're specifically referring to members of the group.
This is precisely what my editors said to me re: "Fugazi." Same with your examples of "crowd" and "couple." Those are singular nouns/entities made up of multiple individuals. Y'know, like Congress.
I was the one arguing against regular, "correct" English usage in re: band names. One of my main arguments for this approach (in addition to the Flaming Lips and Bright Eyes examples I detailed above) was the way that singular team names are referred to in much of sports journalism -- as faux-plurals despite how they read, because of their status as collections of individuals.
"Transmissions" on the other hand is
not a singular noun, so it should be "The Transmissions
are a good band,"
and "The Transmissions
are hitting on members of the audience," whether they do this collectively or not. Same with "The Transmissions
have an album coming out on Sub Pop."
"You get a kink in your neck looking up at people or down at people. But when you look straight across, there's no kinks."
--Mike Watt