BTS Opted Out Of The Grammys| Boracity Magazine's Thoughts Reaction

You guys need to react to dragon ball.

Everyone has such great comments here that I'll just add that i haven't watched the Grammys in years until BTS was on. I stopped watching when Jethro and Tull won Metal category over Metallica. Thats when I knew it was a rigged award. And Metallica hated all those backroom label games.

the ceo of grammys responded(for the first time ever) , and also they deleted bts's performances on the grammy from thier website, (idk if it's still deleted). I am so proud of the boys to do this, it takes courage to walk away from something you once wished for, ARIRANG is truly thier healing era! still no other grp has supported thier decision it's like boracity said bts can afford to reject the grammys. I def think we'll get more behind the scenes convos and member's mindset in the near future like the military stuff or covid things, I would love to know.

I'm so happy over how pumped you guys are!!! But yes, this was one of the most goated moves BTS took honestly. Everyone was praising them for it even fandoms of south American and African artists

I don't know if they're scrapping the tv broadcast or not, but since CBS sold the broadcast rights to ABC/Disney it's gonna be livestreamed on Disney+ for the first time and I bet you they were banking on ARMY showing up to the livestream for what would have been a BTS performance. I'm just glad we don't have to sit through hours and hours of a patronizing host with cringe jokes and false promises of "coming up next, BTS!" just for them to put BTS (abridged) performance at the very end

As well, a famous grammy-nominated producer (has produced with BTS, Beyonce, Usher, etc) is a HUGE army (he even has an army youtube channel), investigated by asking his friends high up in the Grammys organization. Apparently, his friend admitted that the Grammys wanted to give BTS the award so that it would appear to be legitimate and have importance, therefore making all the Asian countries want to chase after it next year. Our army producer said "so you wanted to use BTS as guinea pigs for an Asian award?" And his friend was kind of "no comment"..... Basically wanted bts to be like "hey Asia! we cosign and approve of this segregated backdoor! how nice they made it just for us. everybody follow!". Thankfully bts were smart enough to not want to legitimize that

Actually, you guys predicted correctly– you said you wish the Grammy executives fumbled their response, and one of them actually did. After the CEO's statement which you read, a board member crashed out on her Instagram, writing several paragraphs. One of the worst things she said? SHE SAID BTS WERE JUST MAKING DRAMA TO GET PRESS ATTENTION...... She was basically like "if bts really wanted to make a change, they would've talked to the Grammys privately. Instead, they wanted media attention so they're hating on us publicly" .... wow. as if BTS need drama to get press. And bts didn't even "hate", they were classy and simply said they aren't submitting this year bc they don't believe in dividing music by region

"They should've called BTS..." So glad you brought that up, Wesley. In the days following BTS's refusal to submit, several Asian artists (none, save for like 2, from the K-pop industry, mind you) have applauded BTS's decision and even spoken about how their music would not be eligible because they sing in English, despite incorporating traditional asian musical elements in just about every other aspect of their music. Some people have even brought up how English is an OFFICIAL NATIONAL LANGUAGE in some Asian countries. In response to all this, these dumb dumbs have just been outing themselves, talking about some "Oh, we didn't know that was the case." So, to make matters worse, they went ahead and created this category with idiotic and trivial criteria, without even consulting actual Asian artists in the genres, countries, or regions they're trying to police. They just woke up one morning, rubbed their 2 xenophobic and racist brain cells together, and thought they were giving the entirety of Asia a gift by creating the category. The arrogance surrounding the category alone is so audacious and idiotic to me. If you want to make a legitimate award, consult the people it will impact FIRST. It's somehow more embarrassing than the criteria for their new Latin-music categories, being that the music has to be in Spanish--so just fck all the Portuguese music from Brazil then I guess 💀 So so so proud of BTS for not only making a stance for themselves, but making a stance for their fellow asian artists, cause this is all just some bullshit

Oh it got worse because one of the ppl you fought for the award to be added came out and decided to call BTS. She even said she didn’t even take into account Asian countries that English is their main language like Singapore. ARMY asked questions and she decided to go private instead of debating her case.

Just to break down the 4 major award ceremonies in the US, since you guys kinda talked about popularity in America and using "the numbers" for awards: * Billboard Music Awards: Awards based largely on Billboard charting success. Nominees are determined by charting success, and those numbers also contribute partially in the voting process, alongside fan votes. So this is essentially the "by the numbers" award show, with a few categories as exceptions * American Music Awards: Awards based solely on votes cast by the general public. The nomination process isn't disclosed, but basically, they nominate whoever is popular in whatever given category, and the fans/general public vote accordingly. It is believed that BTS regularly attends the AMAs because they're aware it's a fan-voted award and always want to acknowledge when ARMY wins them an award (particularly Artist of the Year). * MTV Video Music Awards: This is really a dying award show, as there is less and less importance placed on the performance aspect (typically referring to MVs but also live performances) of music in the US. Since literally no one cares about the VMAs anymore (lol), I can't recall much about the nomination or voting process, but I do believe it incorporates fan/general public voting. The difference between it and the AMAs is what is being voted on. They've been regularly shady to BTS tho and as a result, BTS has never attended or acknowledged them lol. * The Grammys: "INTENDED" to be the most prestigious award show in the world, which recognizes music all over the globe. BTS aside, I think this is largely correct (in that there is no other music award show that recognizes acts all over the world regardless of their notoriety or success in the US). I say this objectively, as I'm sure most people don't even know a 10th of the number of categories and genres that the Grammys award (mainly bc ppl think the only awards are the ones that are televised. The Grammys has 100s of categories, awarding not just musicians but producers, writers, designers, etc. Perfect example of this is BTS's first Grammy nomination, which wasn't even for their music...it was for the album design of the Love Yourself: Tear album). The Grammys' issue, however, is that whenever someone begins performing at a level that deserves recognition in the main categories, they create subcategories to pigeonhole them. They've done this for decades, and several prominent US musicians have called it out over the years. When Black artists start to deserve recognition, they shove them into R&B and "urban" categories — even if the music they make doesn't fit that label. When Beyonce won Country album of the Year with Cowboy Carter, the Grammys responded by splitting the category into "traditional country" and "contemporary(?) country" the following year. When Bad Bunny won Album of the Year last year, the Grammys introduced SEVERAL Latin-based categories this year, with criteria just as stupid as the criteria for the Asian pop music performance category (not to mention the Grammy creating an ENTIRELY SEPARATE AWARD SHOW called the Latin Music Grammys, years ago in an attempt to avoid awarding all the artists from that region). And that's not including the corrupt voting practices that go on with the main categories, btw. What the Grammys did in response to BTS's and Arirang's success was, unfortunately, nothing new. But to answer your question, yes there is an award for most popular artist in the US and that's techincially Artist of the Year at the AMAs but people always hold the Grammys with more weight bc the AMAs is voted on by regular people while the Recording Academy (which BTS are members of, so they will be voting on the categories they chose not to submit to) votes on Grammys

The funny thing about the Grammys and their categorization of "Asia Pop" , as Latina in my opinion, is that here in Latin America, with the Latin Grammys, according to the Grammys, only Spanish is spoken among Latinos, ignoring that Brazil is also a Latin American country, In the entire history of the Latin Grammys, no Brazilian artist has ever won a award because, according to the Latin Grammy rules, only songs in Spanish can win. That's why Spaniards, who are European, have won award, but Brazilians never have And that reminds me too much of the "Asian Pop" award conditions, since they ignore that countries like India are part of Asia, or others that have their own languages, so the award conditions only mention Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, as if there were no other languages and countries in Asia

I can't help but feel heartbroken knowing that BTS may never win a Grammy or even be nominated again especially after how open they were about how much that dream meant to them. At the same time, the thought that another Asian artist will likely become the first to win one is genuinely difficult for me to process. It's not about taking anything away from anyone else's success. It's just that I've watched BTS chase that dream with everything they had, and I know how deeply they wanted it. Reading their stories as they were being posted got me a lot emotional. It takes incredible courage to let go of something you've longed for so deeply in order to choose a greater purpose but I guess that is being brave as well. Can you imagine the discussion that go through before they reached this final decision?

ARMYs later found out that the GRAMMY CEO had actually produced for artists under one of the Big 3 labels, specifically SM Entertainment.

Okay regarding the country music here’s some lore I know: So in 2025 Beyoncé won Best Country Album which was historical in itself. However, she garnered a massive backlash from the country music community as she’s not the conventional country artist. After that, the Grammys decided for the next year, that category is split into 2 different categories: Best Traditional Country Album and Best Contemporary Country Album which was a super slimey move from the Grammys

Oh I didnt know you lisytened to other kpop groups Steph ! which ones are they ? I used to be a shawol (fan of SHINee) and recently I've taken an interest into another group called XLOV, though Im only a casual listener

For more cultural context surrounding the Grammy's and the music industry you should check out D'angelo Wallace's video about bts' boycott. Army has had a rocky relationship with him and he's had questionable takes in the past but he does a good job of summarizing the xenophobic and racist history of the Grammy's

so tired of the Grammys i can’t wait for it to crumble as a whole Literally anyone can get a Grammy for anything now , all you need to do is get some playlisting and radio and a trendy TikTok sound and you’ve basically secured it So proud and happy bts won’t let their hard work be disrespected

Years ago when Old Town Road was released by Lil Nas X, it was removed from the country charts for not being 'country enough'. That's one of the main reasons the song blew up, because of the controversy. The Grammys introduced 'Contemporary Country Album' after Beyoncé released Cowboy Carter. Moving on from country, in recent years with the increased popularity of afrobeats and African music, the Grammys introduced the Best Afrobeats category. Tyla, a South African artist has this award despite NOT making afrobeats music (she makes a amapiano and other genres). Nigerian artist Rema protested this as well. It was mentioned in the video but the Weeknd was horribly snubbed in 2020/21 (dont remember exactly the year) when he didn't win any awards for Blinding Lights which was the soundtrack for everyone's pandemic and he hasn't submitted since. Again, mentioned in the video but there's also a new Latin category which I can guarantee is in response to Bad Bunny's popularity and they fact they can't just throw him to the Latin American Grammys (yes they have a whole other award show for LatAm 🙄) because he's from Puerto Rico and an American citizen! Tyler The Creator's whole comment was about him being such an experimental and diverse music artist but he keeps being put in the rap/hip hop categories. He specifically said that not all black music is 'urban' or belongs to those categories. So yeah, the Grammys have been on some bullshit for a WHILE.

Uf guys! It was a historical move. Mostly because they pressured the Grammys enough they had to release a statement. Note that when The Weekend did something similar they didn’t do it. And they created things like this for Latin, African… As if you could make one category for the music of a whole continent… But this time it was so so huge. Because BTS stood for themselves. Most music magazines supported them and It was even in Spain local news… Okay so what you are saying about other groups… It is clear that it couldn’t be a company boycott because then hybe will lost a lot of its investors and a lot of PR things that we are not gonna discuss now. It is also more powerful if it is only BTS who does it because it is clear a matter of criteria. BTS has always been crytical and very ethical so this matches a lot with their own basis. Regarding the rest of the korean industry… No one has said anything about this yet and here is the thing, as much as I like other groups and I am interested in the industry as a whole cause I studied Music business, I do have to say it was expected, but I’m still disappointed. I now there are many things to take into account. Most groups don’t have the “power” and “independence” to release a statement regarding the topic without the approval of their own company and most companies will wait a lot until releasing one because Korean companies tend to be very very conservative when it comes to adopt a stance, this a very cultural thing but also what makes BTS different. They won’t do it until they feel pressured to do so orrrr if the award thing becomes something regarded as bad/controversial… or to justify themselves. Let’s face it. If this thing carries on it is gonna be a very ugly situation and a very unfair one. Mostly because with this move BTS hacked the industry: “If you don’t wanna support me that’s fine but if you apply for that specific nomination and you get it everyone is gonna glare at you…” So not a good thing for anybody… So at this point it is a matter of values vs getting an award. Will anyone stand against the Grammys? Not sure. We will see but it is not a good situation for any of them. Except BTS who is out of this freaking mess. Good job, guys

My show is on!! I’m so excited to watch this with you guys and hear your discussion. It’s gonna be a good lunch break 😎💕