While attending a Rilo Kiley concert last night (excellent show, BTW) I noticed how prevalent singalongs were among concertgoers. About two thirds of the songs had numerous people singing along, and the band even organized a singalong on one song. Do you like this? My opinion depends on the artists. If it’s a hard rock show, singalongs help build the excitement of the show. Plus, most hard rock singers don’t have great voices so it’s no big loss if the singer is hard to hear. But when you have a band with a good lead singer, like Jenny Lewis in Rilo Kiley, I want to hear their voices. I don’t want to hear great vocals drowned out by some out of tune teenage warbler. Also do you think singalongs are becoming more common?
I love singalongs in concerts. I’ve been to two Wilco concerts and two Frames concerts in the past year, and everyone sang along to almost all the songs - it was great. That’s the experience I go for, anyway.
When I saw Regina Spektor, the experience was somewhat marred by the Drunken Girl Choir next to me. I can appreciate that you might want to join in the experience but, if I want to listen to Regina Spektor’s songs sung loudly and poorly by five drunk chicks, I don’t really need to buy tickets to her show.
Conversely, I saw Tom Petty last summer and the crowd tended to chime in on every song. Didn’t bother me at all. Maybe the deciding factor is how small the setting is – I care less about folks singing along at large shows than during small ones.
I have tickets for Rilo Kiley in May. Glad to hear it’s a good show. 
I generally hate it unless it’s the kind of song that it’s really suited for (like Another Brick in the Wall–everyone can sing along to “We don’t need no education…” and it works well…)
Most of the time it annoys me because I came to hear the BAND play.
without the sing along Cake would be a pretty bland show, I swear they write songs with the idea that its a great sing along.
It depends on the band for me, too. Some bands have really anthemic songs that are great when the entire crowd is singing or screaming along with. Other bands that have quieter or more pensive material aren’t as great for that kind of experience.