With BTS, Stray Kids and BLACKPINK out... Will the incomplete Grammys become a public embarrassment?

[Baek Ji-eun, Sportschosun reporter] The Grammy Awards (hereafter, the Grammys), which boasts the highest prestige in the United States, is at risk of becoming a “spectacle of humiliation.” The Grammys is a prestigious event, counted alongside the American Music Awards and the Billboard Music Awards as one of the three major awards ceremonies for American popular music. Yet it has faced a fierce backlash from the outset for creating the Best Asian Pop Music Performance category (hereafter, Asian Pop), amid controversy. As leading K-pop acts that dominate the global pop market have one after another refused to submit entries or been ruled ineligible, the Asian Pop category is set to hand out “half-measure” awards in its very first year. Last July, BTS announced a boycott, saying, “We hope music will be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language.” Stray Kids also did not submit any work during the online submission period for the 69th Grammy Awards, which closed in August. BTS and Stray Kids have already made their mark in the global mainstream. This year alone, BTS has won three awards at the MTV Video Music Awards, one of the four major U.S. music awards ceremonies, including Song of the Year, the equivalent of the top prize. The group is also in the midst of a successful world tour drawing hundreds of thousands of fans. Stray Kids, meanwhile, has topped Billboard’s main albums chart, the Billboard 200, nine times in total, and all eight members have voting rights in the Recording Academy. Their successive boycotts expose the hollowness of the Grammys’ pledge to “embrace diversity.” Critics say they reveal the Grammys’ conservatism and racial and regional limitations, as it seeks to isolate mainstream artists who should be competing in the general categories in a peripheral category called “Asian Pop.” Stray Kids held a press conference at the Conrad Seoul hotel in Yeouido, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 6th to mark the release of their mini-album “THIS & THAT.” The members pose together. Photo by Jeong Jae-geun, The global girl group BLACKPINK was also left off the list of nominees. The Grammys stipulated that an entry in the Asian Pop category must “meaningfully use one or more Asian languages.” The problem is that, as boundaries in the global pop market have broken down, many K-pop hits have increasingly featured English lyrics. This has led to the bizarre situation in which the very artists who globalized K-pop, such as BLACKPINK, whose latest mini-album consists mostly of English-language songs, are disqualified from Asian Pop eligibility for “singing songs in English.” The Grammys’ outdated criteria, out of step with changes in the music market, have backfired. Until now, the Grammys has boosted its ratings and global buzz through K-pop stars’ performances and fan participation. But with BTS, Stray Kids and BLACKPINK—acts with the world’s biggest streaming reach—pulling out, the Grammys stands to lose enormous tangible benefits. Japan’s Kenshi Yonezu and YOASOBI are being touted as strong contenders, but there are concerns about a “triple disaster”: the main acts who should be taking home trophies won’t be there, no top stars will walk the red carpet, and even the audience that would tune in to watch the ceremony will turn away. What’s interesting is how the K-pop industry is responding. Bang Si-hyuk, chairman of HYBE, BTS, JYP’s Park Jin-young, TWICE, Stray Kids, Seventeen’s Woozi and Vernon, and Zico are among the many key K-pop figures who are already members of the Recording Academy with voting rights in the Grammys. The artists have chosen to exercise their voting rights as members while not submitting their own work. It is a powerful and carefully calibrated message: “We’ll maintain our influence within the Grammy system, but reject discriminatory categories.” For the Grammys, which sought to run the ceremony by drawing on the influence of K-pop artists, this is a complete loss of face. Park Jin-young, co-chair of the Popular Culture Exchange Committee, criticized the new criteria, saying, “I think there will be adverse effects,” and, “They clash strongly with what K-pop has been trying to do up to now.” The first round of Grammy voting will take place from the 12th to the 22nd, and the final nominees will be announced on November 16. The music industry is watching to see whether the Asian Pop category, launched in the name of inclusivity but rejected by key figures and stripped of its prestige, will go down as the most forlorn and embarrassing own goal in Grammy history. Baek Ji-eun, Reporter silk781220@sportschosun.com This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI. Jieun, Baek