Metric is a Canadian indie rock band founded in 1998 in Toronto, Ontario. The band consists of Emily Haines (lead vocals, synthesizers, guitar, tambourine, harmonica, piano), James Shaw (guitar, synthesizers, theremin, backing vocals), Joshua Winstead (bass, synthesizers, backing vocals), and Joules Scott-Key (drums, percussion). The band started in 1998 as a duo formed by Haines and Shaw with the name "Mainstream". After releasing an EP titled Mainstream EP, they changed the band's name to Metric.

The band's first studio album, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, was released in 2003. Live It Out, released in 2005, was nominated for the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the "Canadian Album of the Year" and for the 2006 Juno Awards for "Best Alternative Album". Their third studio album, Grow Up and Blow Away, was recorded in 2001; it was initially planned as their debut album, but was delayed for many years and finally released, with some changes, in 2007.

Metric's fourth album Fantasies was released in 2009. It was shortlisted for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize for "Canadian Album of the Year", and won the "Alternative Album of the Year" at the 2010 Juno Awards. Metric also won the 2010 "Group of the Year". The fifth Metric studio album, Synthetica, was released in 2012. The band won two awards at 2013 Juno Awards: "Alternative Album of the Year" for Synthetica and "Producer of the Year" for Shaw. The art director/designer/photographer Justin Broadbent also won an award for "Recording Package of the Year" for Synthetica. Metric's sixth album, Pagans in Vegas, was released in 2015, and their seventh album, Art of Doubt, was released in 2018. Their eighth and ninth full-length records, Formentera and Formentera II, were released in 2022 and 2023 respectively. This was followed by their tenth album, Romanticize the Dive, in 2026.

In 2023, Metric ranked 41st on Rolling Stone's The 50 Greatest Canadian Artists of All Time.

Emily Haines was born in New Delhi, India, to American-born parents, and was raised in Fenelon Falls, Ontario. She grew up as a dual citizen of both Canada and the United States. Her father, poet Paul Haines (best known for his lyrical collaboration with Carla Bley in the 1971 jazz opera Escalator over the Hill), often made cassettes of rare and eclectic music for his daughter to listen to, and her early influences included Carla Bley and Robert Wyatt.

Haines attended Etobicoke School of the Arts. There she met Amy Millan (future member of Stars and Broken Social Scene), and Kevin Drew (future member of Broken Social Scene). Haines and Millan briefly formed their first band around 1990 while at ESA. Haines attended the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in 1992–1993, at Toronto in 1995, and at Concordia University in Montreal in 1995–1996. She distributed in 1996 an early album titled Cut in Half and Also Double with a limited number of copies.

James Shaw, who was born in England and raised in Ontario, was attending a Boston music school when he befriended singer Torquil Campbell and Chris Seligman, both future members of the band Stars. Campbell convinced Shaw to apply to Juilliard Music School and the two moved to New York City. Shaw initially studied as a classical trumpet player.

In mid-1996, Haines and Shaw met at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern. Bonding over a mutual distaste of the music scene, they began dating and writing songs together. In 1997, Shaw released the studio album Life on the Clock which featured Haines singing on some songs. Shaw also moved to Montreal where Haines was living. In 1998, calling themselves Mainstream, the pair self-released the five-song Mainstream EP with an overall downtempo and electronic feel.