The Recording Academy is under fire from K-pop fans after the Grammys announced a new category — Best Asian Pop Music Performance — from next year.
On Monday, the Grammys added five new categories, which will take effect at the 69th Grammy Awards. The categories are: Best Asian Pop Music Performance, Best Latin Song, Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance and Best Traditional Folk Album.
However, fans vented their anger online, alleging that the organisers were deliberately creating separate categories to keep globally successful Asian acts, including BTS and Blackpink, from taking home trophies in the Grammys’ top categories.
In the history of the Grammys, BTS and Blackpink singer Rose were the only K-pop stars who were nominated at the award ceremony but never lifted the trophy.
The argument mostly sticks to the point that claims the academy relies on K-pop stars only for ratings and viewership.
“The timing of a new ‘asian pop’ category while a major asian act is having one of the most successful albums globally really exposes the problem: it’s segregation and not inclusion,” an X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, “No matter how successful some artists become, there are still systems and institutions that treat them as perpetual outsiders. And that's exactly why this conversation matters. Because when BTS were impossible to ignore, the response shouldn't have been to create another box and place Asian artists inside it. The response should have been to judge them by the same standards as every other artist competing for the biggest awards in music.”
Referring to their latest song, Aliens, another BTS fan wrote, “BTS dropping aliens and Grammys showing its colours.. the joke writes itself.”
“It's actually insane how these K-pop artists became so big that these western award shows are making their own kpop and Asian pop categories just so they can discredit them,” another X user wrote.
“Literally what rosé was talking about. They keep creating these separate categories that end up boxing asian artists into specific lanes instead of allowing them to compete on equal footing. This just creates more room for discrimination while pretending it's inclusion,” reads another post.
BTS has earned a total of five Grammy Award nominations throughout their career. They made history as the first Korean pop act to receive a Grammy nomination.
Last year, Rose became the first Korean solo singer to get a nomination at the Grammys for her song APT.