HOLD YOUR TONGUE, MAN, HOLD YOUR TONGUE: Stipe spoke to Grantland and
Mills spoke to EW in connection with this week's Blu-ray release of
R.E.M. by MTV, a damn fine documentary compiling the band's televised and film history from
its early days on Nickelodeon to its
final studio recording.
Grammar Rodeo Q: is it "its early days" or "their early days"? I wavered.
ReplyDeleteThis is a place where British and American English differ--in American English a band is a singular entity, whereas in British English a band is a plural entity. Frankly, I refrain from taking either position, but simply go by the band's name itself--if the band has a singular name (e.g., "R.E.M.," "U2"), I'll go with "is," while if the band has a plural name (e.g., "The Buzzcocks," "The Temptations"), I'll go with "are."
ReplyDeleteI though REM had become pretty uninteresting in its later days, but I must say that I admire them as they seem to have stayed broken up.
ReplyDeleteyes, an American prescriptivist grammarian would use "its." Everyone else is free to go whichever way you want, just be consistent.
ReplyDeleteFor bands, I break it down by how I define "entity." The more indie and real a band is entity means a collection of people; so I would say "their" if referring to REM through "Green."
Starting with "Out of Time," in 1991, REM becomes an "its."