BTS is finally nominated for their first Grammy Award, making them the only K-pop group to ever be recognized by the Recording Academy. Since their 2013 debut, the South Korean boy band has been breaking records and cranking out hits, like “DNA,” which has over 1 billion YouTube views.
People aren’t just tuning in for their glitzy music videos. In March 2021, Jungkook, the youngest member, garnered over 22 million viewers for an hour-long surprise Vlive, a South Korean live video streaming service. Comparably, last year’s Grammy Awards ceremony amassed only 16 million.
The Grammys, however, have snubbed BTS for years, even disregarding “Map of the Soul: 7,” the group’s February 2020 album that made them the best-selling artists of the year. They were only able to catch the Academy’s eye with their first fully English track, “Dynamite.” At last, BTS’ fun disco bop is up for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and boy, do they deserve this award.
RM, their leader, said: “It feels like our hard work has finally paid off since we’re nominated. If we can get a win, too, that’d be amazing — the greatest honor we could ever have.”
Throughout that 7-year-long nomination snub, the Grammys threw BTS a few crumbs. In 2019, they became the first K-pop group to present a Grammy Award, during which RM teased, “We’ll be back.” Indeed, they returned in 2020, but only to join Lil Nas X onstage for 30 seconds of his “Old Town Road” performance.
On the Late-Late Show with James Corden, the seven members — Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook — expressed gratitude for having been invited. J-Hope said, “Everything about that night was so special. Alicia Keys mentioned BTS and K-pop on stage. We couldn’t believe it.”
Their disbelief is why BTS needs to win this award. It shouldn’t be hard to imagine Korean talent on the Grammys stage. Spotify’s statistics find that K-pop’s share of listening increased by more than 1,800% between 2014 and 2020, with America being the number one country streaming the genre. BTS was Spotify’s 6th most streamed artist in 2020, obtaining 5 billion streams globally. Still, the Grammys, which claim to be “committed to ensuring music remains diverse,” gave them one nomination for their one song that doesn’t contain a Korean lyric.
In 2020, TIME magazine named BTS “Entertainer of the Year,” because they “ascended to the zenith of pop stardom” in a year “defined by setbacks.” They did so by releasing music, connecting with their fanbase, called ARMY, and donating $1 million to the Black Lives Matter Movement — an amount matched by ARMY’s fundraising in 24 hours.
“We believe everyone deserves the right to be respected,” said Jin, the oldest member.
Sadly, BTS often faces racism. In a 2018 article, UO associate literature professor Susanna Lim wrote, “American popular culture has a long history of excluding Asians, and there were hints of racism and xenophobia after BTS won their first Billboard.” As recently as February 2021, BTS became targets of racist remarks, but K-pop idols aren’t the only victims of hate. Alongside COVID-19, there’s been a surge of hate crimes against Asian Americans, sparking a #StopAsianHate movement.
Amid such hatred, seeing a deserving Korean band achieve this milestone will be a small, necessary step in the right direction. It’ll not only prove that the Academy is finally ready to reward Asian artists, but it’ll show that our country accepts them as humans.
Watching BTS’ hard work makes me care about the recognition — or lack thereof — that they receive. Together, they work 10 hours a day for 30 days a month, which is apparent to their 45 million BANGTANTV subscribers. It feels like whenever I check YouTube, there’s a new “Dynamite” performance, each one putting a fresh spin on the track.
Specifically, the song “Dynamite” deserves to win because it’s undeniably pop, unlike its fellow nominees. For example, “Exile,” Taylor Swift’s duet with Bon Iver, is a sad folk song that’s fit to listen to while crying in the shower. Meanwhile, Justin Bieber said so himself that “Intentions,” his song with Quavo, belongs in the R&B category.
“Dynamite” dominates in numbers. Out of the five nominees, it has the most Spotify listens with over 736 million streams. Upon release, the song’s rainbow-colored music video broke the record for the most-played YouTube video in 24 hours, hitting 101.1 million views. Now, it has 900 million views.
The future looks promising, as BTS is set to “bring the fire and set the night alight” with their own Grammy performance on March 14.