Just learned that BTS are choosing not to submit their music to the Grammys this year, after the Grammys announced a new category called Best Asian Pop Music Performance... and as a 10-year ARMY, I have to say: GOOD. I love that they're rejecting this very typical Grammys move of making new categories created to pull specific minorities out of the running for all the major pop awards. (As a side note, it's hilarious how hyperspecific that award is. Like, just call it the BTS Please Stop Bothering Us Award (We Promise We're Not Racist) and be done with it lmfao.)
All of this has made me start to think again about the desire for Western approval and validation within the Kpop industry. The last few years of Kpop (not only with regards to BTS) have really just felt like companies have been doing literally anything to get Western attention, including getting rid of the things that makes Kpop special, and distinct from Western pop. It's been selling out, basically— and I think HYBE as a company has been one of the worst offenders (again, I also say this as a fan of many HYBE groups).
Make no mistake, I understand why they do it. Western and English language pop is popular the world over, and Kpop being recognised by the Western pop industry would show the undeniable power of Korea’s media and culture, and break the singular hold that English language music (and Anglosphere culture and language itself as the "default") has on the world. I completely understand what achieving success in such an industry would mean for a non-Western group like BTS. But at some point, it just becomes this relentless bootlicking of an industry that has no intention, and also no ability, to ever take Kpop fully seriously, because of its own racism and prejudices. I think it's been clear for a while that the Western music industry and its institutions see Kpop as a shallow, amusing, quirky, little trendy thing they can piggyback on for the popularity of their own artists, but not as a "real" music industry worthy of proper respect. Best to maintain your dignity, recognise it’s them and not you, and take your power back by no longer seeing these Western institutions as authorities on global music, like what BTS is doing.
On that note… this might be a hot take, but I feel like some Kpop artists and even companies buy into the West's perception of them, and see themselves as being this “lesser” thing behind Western artists (or see the West as a kind of musical authority). I've seen Kpop artists still admire Western musicians or seek their approval without realising that they have outperformed their own faves in some way. Taemin wishing that his idol Justin Bieber would come to his Coachella set is one example off the top of my head— that man can outperform JB any day. Especially comparing the two Coachella sets… my god. Taemin, the Biebs should be looking up to YOU lmao. (Also, can every idol worshipping Chris Brown please just, like... cease and desist? Thanks.)
One final note on BTS for this very long post: in my opinion, when Arirang the album was released earlier this year, it seemed to me like yet another desperate attempt of theirs to be acknowledged properly by the West, what with all of the American producers and English lyrics on an album literally named after a very Korean concept. (I wasn’t really a fan of the “this album is Korean because we are Korean and exploring what Korean identity is” thing they had going on because… how far can you go in “exploring Korean identity” in music before it’s literally just American pop under another name? It was very “have your cake and eat it too”.)
So this new stance of theirs makes me happy, and I hope it's the thing that finally rips off the rose-coloured glasses re: the Western music industry, that they've had a vice grip on up til now. Proud of them for reclaiming their power, knowing their worth, and-- I suppose you could call it-- decentering Western approval. Looking forward to seeing if this has any kind of ripple effect on the rest of the industry as well.
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