The ARMY spoke and BTS listened.
Following weeks of blowback over the Recording Academy’s creation of the Best Asian Pop Music Performance — which many fans and critics saw as a way to reward prohibitive favorite BTS with an elusive Grammy after years of the K-pop titans failing to break through in the general categories — the band has made a loud statement showing their displeasure. On Wednesday, all seven members of the supergroup — Jin, Suga, RM, Jimin, J-Hope, V, and Jung Kook — simultaneously posted an identical statement on their individual Instagram stories.
“We have decided not to submit to the Grammys this year,” the Google translation of the message reads. “I hope that music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language. Thank you to ARMY and all of you who are always with us.”
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BTS’ shocking decision completely explodes the Grammy landscape in what was shaping up as an historic year for Asian representation at the Grammys. BTS’ comeback record, Arirang, was in contention for Album of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (“Swim”), in addition to being the favorite for Best Asian Pop Performance. Several other artists, including Blackpink’s Jennie, and the “Iconic by Mistake” all-star team-up of Le Sserafim, Illit, and Katseye.
It’s impossible to see the specific wording of the BTS message as anything other than a broadside at the Recording Academy. In a seismic shift last month, the Grammys announced major rule changes and new categories for the upcoming 69th edition next February. This featured the addition of Best Asian Pop Music Performance, designed to honor work recorded primarily in an Asian language, “including, but not limited to” K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop.
While the Recording Academy touted the move as a way to diversify the Grammys and honor artists traditionally overlooked by voters, fans of the genres, especially the extremely online K-pop faction, slammed the organization on social media and Reddit threads. The gist of their backlash: Instead of honoring Asian artists, the new Grammy ghettoizes them, providing a consolation prize from the General Field and mainstream pop categories.
This critique is one that has dogged the Grammys before. R&B and rap fans and artists have long complained of a tiered system at the Grammys, with the existence of those genre categories providing a means to avoid awarding Black creators in the perceived top awards. Instead of a celebration, such categories are marginalization.
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Asian pop has historically been shunned by the Grammys. Until last year, K-pop, the most commercially successful subgenre in the United States, had only one act receive nominations. The hugely popular BTS managed a grand total of five nods, winning none. Only one of those was in the General Field. (They were technically nominated for Album of the Year, but it was only as featured artists on Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres.)
Last year, which was celebrated as K-pop’s breakthrough, saw two other acts score nominations, Rosé from Blackpink and the BTS-affiliated Katseye, along with the music team behind KPop Demon Hunters. In the end, the only winner was the KPop Demon Hunters crew for “Golden” in Best Song Written for Visual Media. (Some diehard K-pop fans refuse to acknowledge that win as the first for the genre, seeing as it was a track composed by committee for a movie, rather than a release from a recording artist or group.) Meanwhile, subgenres like C-pop and J-pop have yet to be recognized.
The Recording Academy has yet to comment. We’ll also be paying attention to whether other artists follow BTS’ lead and withdraw from consideration. The band’s influential label HYBE represents several performers who might also have been in play for the new award.
With BTS out of the running, the inaugural Best Asian Pop Music Performance Grammy is now wide open, with artists such as Ateez, Hearts2Hearts, Stray Kids, Bini, and Cortis among those in the mix.
