This is probably just one of the point-of-views of the millions of people, who watched the Grammys 2021, that aired on 15 March (today), and one of the millions who watched it just for the sake of one nomination and one performance. That of BTS.
BTS has had an amazing year in music, in 2020. Their music has topped the charts, they debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 Number 1, broke multiple decades old records (Micheal Jackson, The Beatles etc.), released a very touching, high member-participation album BE, that once again topped charts and brought a whole new perspective and interest in putting their Korean culture in the world’s spotlight.
As an Asian myself, and of course an ARMY, I was not only extremely proud to see such a beautiful, Asian culture representation, I also felt that it was needed, considering the rise in the anti-Asian sentiment especially in the United States (though of course, I don’t live there, thank god). Not to add, that there is a certain pleasure I feel, when I see a non-English music artist achieve something as equal to their English-speaking peers in the English-speaking market scene (or maybe that’s about 400 years of colonialism, speaking).
So it is only normal that all eyes were drawn to what BTS called to be their final step in the US Music Journey: The Grammys.
Now, I had not been too deep into music up until early 2020. I was a casual listener of many artists and I was a person was casually amazed at good lyricism. It wasn’t until the BTS Rabbit Hole happened to me, that I invested time in understanding how the music industry works (or rather the capitalism of the music industry, if I may). The ARMY fandom, has not only professionals of many spheres, also professionals in the music scene. I learnt a lot in the fandom spaces, starting from how the charts work to what a sample is to how the Korean Music Credit system works. Among those, I learnt about the Grammys.
I do admit that I am no expert, and I have no interest in being one. (English is a bland language) But what I do gather or understand is that the Grammys are a big deal. They are the highest honour a musician aspires to have, and they claim to be a quality award, as in, they reward the music’s quality, not just the chart numbers. And of course they claim to be global, which in an ideal scenario means that they take submissions from across the world and choose which music piece or song is artistically & musically the best.
However, let us not waste our time discussing why there is a separate Global Music category or why Map of The Soul: 7 was not nominated to be on the Best Pop Vocal Album (Well, it is mostly Korean) or why certain POC artists (looking at you Zayn, looking at you Weeknd) have been snubbed in the past. Well that would mean that I am implying that the Grammys are racist or at the very least unable to comprehend languages beyond English, but that would be horrible of me to make accusations without reciepts, so how about the receipt that the song that was nominated in the Best Pop Group/Duo, has to be the one fully English single released by BTS called ‘Dynamite’? Well I guess it’s not enough to conclusively say anything of that sort seeing that there have been POC artists nominated & won, and that the host of the show was Trevor Noah, (hold on, does that sound a lot like, ‘Oh but I have a black friend?’)
I wouldn’t know.
I am not a citizen of the US.
But I am having a problem with the certain global acclaim this certain show seems to have.
Is it truly time for the Grammys to go?
They spent the span of time, from the nominations to the event today, by hyping and promoting and getting clout using BTS’s name. BTS breaking history to be the first Korean group to be nominated in a major category. BTS being excited to perform at the Grammys. BTS being honoured to have a solo stage as opposed to the shared stage last time.
BTS. BTS. BTS. BTS. BTS. BTS. BTS.
Do you know that the amount of viewership one BTS member live gets is nearly double of the viewership Grammys got in 2020? So you can imagine how many of the fans, were looking forward to watch this so-called global show of a prestigious award, which the members were looking forward to. ARMY knows when people are using BTS for clout, especially coming from an award show known to snub non-English artists and POC artists. But ARMYs were encouraging each other to be nice. Let’s be nice to that show for now. Let’s tune in just for the boys. I am sure Grammy must now recognize the impact BTS has on the music scene.
The first blow was when we came to know that the Best Pop Group/Duo Award was not going to be televised but was a per-premiere. But we rationalized it. Hey maybe it’s not a POC artist thing. Maybe it’s just that they want a lot of people to be able to tune in. Maybe the boys are actually winning.
We stayed up to ungodly amounts of time. 12:30 am in India for me. 4:00 am odd in South Korea. And we knew that the boys were awake. They were tweeting. We all were anxious.
And then:
They didn’t win.
We felt a little crushed. A lot crushed actually. But the members tweeted. They asked us to look for the performance.
And we waited.
Every time a commercial aired, you’d see it flash: Coming Next BTS.
But guess what?
The second blow was that they aired BTS’s performance second to last. A three minute gorgeous performance of Dynamite on a rooftop in Seoul having fucking recreated the award show stage. The amount of money. The amount of effort. It was the first dance performance of Suga, after his shoulder surgery. They looked good. They performed so, so, so well.
The third blow was that they got no intro. No VCR. Just a straight three minute performance.
Having had to watch the shit-show (no disrespect to other artists. The performances were gorgeous, the show lacks respect) for so many bloody hours, just to catch three minute rushed performance clip, knowing that we, the fandom and the group had been used just to milk out views, well it isn’t that we don;t know how advertising works. Or how the entertainment industry goes.
All we ask is for them to have some fucking respect.
After all, the very important question was raised back when the nominations were being rolled out: Who needs who? The answer is very obvious. It’s the Grammys that need BTS, not the other way around.
So overall?
A bad experience. The performances were amazing. The disrespect was obvious. We will be waiting next year. We will observe. We will see.
