BTS’ Grammy boycott spotlights a long-running problem with pop music
The creation of a new Asian category is set against a history of exclusion and raises the question: What is pop, anyway?
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
BTS have decided not to submit their music for the Grammy Awards following the Recording Academy's creation of a new Asian pop category.
PHOTO: AFP
Dan Charnas
The South Korean supergroup BTS have pulled their blockbuster album Arirang from Grammy Awards consideration, in protest against the new Asian Pop Music Performance category. The move is a remarkable rebuke to the Grammys from a band that have long aimed for American mainstream stardom. In a statement, the group said: “We hope music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided into region or language.”
BTS and many of their fans see the new category as an attempt by the Recording Academy to keep the growing power and popularity of K-pop groups from overwhelming the prestige categories – for the Record, Album, Song of the Year and multiple Pop Performance awards – and they reject the academy’s claims that the new award is simply a means to acknowledge the growth of popular music from South Korea, China, Japan and South-east Asia. BTS rightfully refused to risk being pigeonholed.