The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960.
The Beatles were? Aren't/isn't The Beatles a proper noun and it refers to one group? I don't understand why WikiPedia and other sources use The Beatles were instead of The Beatles was. Is it because of the s? Somebody please explain me about this, it goes against all the rules I've learnt and it is not even in my grammar books.
Best Answer
Lennon was a Beatle. McCartney was a Beatle. Harrison was a Beatle. Starr was a Beatle. Together, the Beatles formed a band called The Beatles.
In my opinion, English doesn't handle this subtlety particularly well, and mostly conflates "the band" with "the constituents of the band". With "The Beatles", the tendency is to refer to the group of members.
"The Beatles was ..." can work, but only in a context where the listener is strongly expecting the name of an abstract entity. It will sound weird if the context can, at all, be construed as referring to the people.