BTS vs. the Grammys

Early this summer, the Grammys announced several new categories, including “Best Asian Pop Music Performance.” This decision has stirred up discourse online after Korean boy group BTS announced that they would not submit anything to the Grammys this year.

Many online agree with the band and that this follows a pattern with the Grammys. Let’s dig into that.

The past

There is historical precedent that works against the Grammys.

Tyler the Creator expressed in his speech during the 2020 ceremony how, for Black artists, “anything that’s genre-bending … they always put it in a rap or urban category.” He speaks to the idea that alternative Black artists are often relegated to R&B or rap instead of pop or alternative genres where they belong.

When Best African Music Performance was created in 2023, many spoke out on this similar issue.

On paper, the category sounds great, but lumping one region into a category forces musicians of all genres to compete against each other. You have genge, alté, R&B, Afrobeats, and amapiano artists all competing for one award when we don’t make “American” rock, pop, and R&B compete in the same category.

The Grammys have put in steps to try and overcome this bias. They have the Gold Music Alliance and the Black Music Collective for increasing visibility of Asian and Black artists. The Recording Academy reported a 65% increase in members of color since 2019.

It begs the question - what is the solution here?

Putting it all together

The simple solution would be artists being fairly categorized by genre, rather than this soft racial-ethnicity-country categorization that the Grammys have been doing.

Thinking about BTS specifically, other American music awards have unveiled categories to recognize the mainstay that K-pop has become in the West. The VMAs, AMAs, and Billboard Awards have added various “K-pop” specific awards.

The difference here is that a “K-pop” award recognizes the importance of not lumping different groups of people into one category, rather than a generic “Asian pop” that lumps in many regions and countries together.

We’ve seen with African music how this generic lumping of sounds devalues the unique music coming out of one region.

BTS’ official statement reflects this: “We have decided not to enter the Grammys this year. We hope music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language."

I think the overall issue is that the Grammys and ceremonies that make up the “EGOT” can sometimes be the last to catch up with where the culture and artistic landscape is.

K-pop has been popular in America before BTS; think “Gangnam Style” or even first-gen groups Girls Generation or Shinee, which gained U.S. popularity in the early 2010s.

Yet, “Golden” became the first K-pop song to win a Grammy last year. “Parasite” was the first South Korean film to win Best Picture only six years ago, and “Maybe Happy Ending” took home several awards at last year’s Tonys.

On the Grammys side, Beyonce and Bad Bunny’s wins at the last two Grammys are a signal that this all can work. Even though it's later than expected, Beyonce and Bad Bunny still won the biggest award in the general category with Album of the Year while still being recognized in their mainstay genres - Best Country Album and Best Música Urbana Album.

In short, the best way to address this controversy is to just simply nominate BTS in the pop category.

What does this all mean?

Within the streaming era, we know that mainstream tastes have changed, giving way to global genres such as Afrobeats, reggaeton, and K-pop to become popular in the U.S.

These award ceremonies still hold weight in the industry; actors discuss how life changes pre- and post-Oscar. Musicians talk in their speeches about the weight it feels to be recognized by these committees.

Award shows must authentically integrate global artists into their main, genre-specific categories rather than relying on tokenism or a single "catch-all" broad category that makes artists feel singled out instead of welcomed.

In a world more interconnected and global than ever before, categorizing and filtering out artists from the competition based on race and nationality is a surprisingly tone deaf move for this music institution.