If something is banded, it has bands: stripes of colour, or strips of a material, going around it or across it. A banded snake has rings of colour. A bird with a banded leg has a small ring put on it so people can tell which bird it is. A box that is banded may have tape or metal strips around it to hold it shut. The word can describe a look (it has stripes) or a thing that was done to it (someone put a band on it). Though actually, in everyday talk people often just say striped for colour; banded is a bit more precise, and you meet it a lot in nature books and in packing. People also stretch it to mean “put into groups,” like prices banded into levels, but the picture in the word is still a set of bands. It does not mean the thing belongs to a music band.