The Grammys Once Again Did The Bare Minimum For BTS
The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards took place last night, and no, BTS didn’t win.
If that feels like an abrupt way to start an article, then it matches how the Recording Academy unceremoniously dispensed with the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance award, for which BTS’s “Dynamite” was nominated, early in the evening. Before the telecast even started, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s “Rain on Me” snagged the trophy, beating the Korean pop septet’s record-breaking hit. But that didn’t stop the Grammys from relentlessly hyping BTS’s live performance all night in a desperate bid to keep viewers tuned into the show.
Viewers griped on social media about the Grammys incessantly teasing the Korean pop septet’s performance, with many joking that the show was holding BTS and their fans hostage. It was a shameless and apparently unsuccessful attempt at ratings bait, as Variety reports that last night’s ceremony averaged an abysmal 8.8 million viewers, by far the least-watched telecast in Grammy history. It was a disappointing but predictable end to BTS’s 2021 Grammys saga, which once again found the Recording Academy doing the bare minimum for the biggest pop group in the world.
Who actually won the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance award last night is fairly inconsequential—“Rain on Me” is an infectious, chart-topping dance-pop anthem that made for a legitimate contender by Recording Academy standards. I would have preferred to see “Dynamite” take home the prize, but it makes perfect sense why “Rain on Me” triumphed. The real problem began the moment the Recording Academy announced this year’s nominees.
The momentousness of BTS earning their first Grammy nod this year was tainted slightly by the nagging sensation that the Recording Academy only nominated “Dynamite” as a conciliatory gesture to placate fans. It’s no surprise that BTS’s first nomination went to their most palatable song for casual Western listeners: a disco-pop anthem performed entirely in English that was engineered for mass consumption via streaming, radio play and TikTok dance challenges. “Dynamite” is an irresistibly catchy song and landmark achievement for BTS, but by design, it lacks the disarming vulnerability and musical nuance of their best work.
And they released a lot of top-tier work in 2020: two No. 1 albums, Map of the Soul: 7 and BE, and their accompanying singles, including the haunting emo-trap opus “Black Swan,” the multilayered arena-rap anthem “ON,” and the uplifting pandemic ballad “Life Goes On.” BTS’s staggering 2020 output saw the group at the peak of their creative powers and commercial dominance, and they would have made legitimate contenders for any of the major Grammy categories, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year or Best Pop Vocal Album. Instead, the Recording Academy nominated BTS’s least adventurous song in a relatively minor category, as if to say to their fans, “Fine, we’ve heard your complaints and we’ll give you what you want, now will you please shut up about BTS?”
This also comes as little surprise, given the Grammys’ historically tenuous relationship with race. Since 1959, only 10 Black artists have won the Album of the Year award, while non-white artists are often relegated to genre-specific categories or tossed into the all-genre category as if to fulfill as diversity quota. BTS’s odds of winning last night were always slim, as I suspect they and many of their fans understood. But giving the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance to another nominee while relentlessly hyping BTS’s performance made their loss feel especially sleazy, as if the Recording Academy knew from day one that it had no intention of giving BTS the win—but hey, it would still milk their appearance for ratings, and they should feel honored to even be invited to perform on the (virtual) Grammys stage.
BTS, as always, accepted their loss with class and went on to deliver another spellbinding performance that ended with them on a rooftop with a gorgeous shot of the Seoul, South Korea skyline behind them. They made the most of the opportunity to perform on the Grammys and once again proved that they’re some of the hardest-working and most charismatic performers in the business. Not that their star power was up for debate, seeing as last October’s “Map of the Soul ON:E” virtual concerts brought in nearly 1 million paid viewers from 191 countries and regions around the world. (Quick rhetorical question: Do you think 1 million people would shell out $50 to $100 to watch the Grammys?)
Progress in the music industry happens at a glacial pace, if it happens at all. One can hope that BTS will continue to receive more high-profile Grammy nominations—and wins—after getting their foot in the door this year. It would certainly behoove the Recording Academy, which has been recently plagued by boycotts and accusations of bribery from several high-profile musicians, to recognize BTS more, if only to save face and slow its own death march into irrelevance. But if that doesn’t happen, neither BTS nor their fans should lose sleep over it. It’s only the Grammys’ loss.
Source (reward him with clicks): https://www.forbes.com/sites/b…-for-bts/?sh=5bf9600d6129
Facts only. Grammys does need BTS more than BTS needs Grammys.
What I think maybe is something a lot of the commentary misses, is that Grammys as institution might be somewhat trapped by its conservative middle aged white male voter base. Even of Grammys would like to nominate BTS more, the voters (like many of that dempographic group) may be too threatened by BTS to come through with votes.
Discuss!
