💜Jewels⁷💜

[colin @colin_goldmund]

My Friends' and Former Students' Reactions to BTS's Decision

I have to admit, many of my male friends and former students, especially my old SNU buddies, have spent years busting my chops for being ARMY. To be fair, I probably deserve some of it. There aren't many middle-aged men who openly tell everyone they love BTS. Every chance I get, I talk about their music, their lyrics, or another charitable project they had supported. I even managed to convert a few of them into BTS fans, if not full-fledged ARMY.

After BTS announced that they wouldn't submit their music to the Grammys, I've never received so many phone calls and Kakao messages about BTS in my life. The Kakao group chat with my former students exploded. The reactions ranged from, "그 형들 시발 멋있다 (Those hyungs are f***ing awesome)," to "They're choosing principles over awards," to "I've always liked the way they operate, but this makes me admire them."

One wrote, "BTS is probably the only artist with guts that could pull something like this." Another simply said, "BTS가 BTS 했네." In other words, "BTS did what BTS would do." But my favorite message was this: "Now I finally understand why you like BTS so much." I smiled when I read that.

My friends, much older and professionals, reacted a little differently. They were less emotional and more philosophical, but they arrived at the same conclusion. One friend who is a business journalist called me, and we ended up talking for quite a while. He told me that many of his fellow journalists had been surprised by BTS's decision. But the more they talked about it, the more they came to admire the group for willingly giving up the possibility of winning an award in order to stand by what they believed was right.

And among the messages from my old SNU boarding house friends, one of them, a lawyer, said BTS's decision reminded her of what happened at Korea's oldest film awards, the Grand Bell Awards, in 2015. That year, the organizers announced that actors who did not attend the ceremony would not receive their awards, regardless of whether they had won. The policy caused such outrage that every nominee for Best Actor and Best Actress refused to attend and declined the awards altogether. It was one of the best examples of artists standing together against an institution they believed had become authoritarian and unfair.

She told me that it takes real courage for entertainers to do something like that. The people with power don't usually appreciate being challenged. Actors may stop getting cast. Musicians may stop getting nominated. In BTS's case, who knows if they'll ever receive another Grammy nomination after this? But all seven members stood together anyway. She ended her message by saying that she was finally going to listen to the BTS albums I had been recommending to her for years.

I also spent some time in an online community made up mostly of middle-aged professionals. The day the news broke, there must have been 50 posts about BTS. At least a dozen made it onto the HOT board, where the most-read discussions appear. One post alone was viewed nearly 15,000 times.

I read almost every post and comment, and I could not find a single negative reaction toward BTS. People, nearly all of them not ARMY, all praised the members for standing by their principles. They admired their courage. Some joked that the Grammys had just created the world's biggest BTS promotional campaign. Some, well, let's just say the creativity of the cursing directed at the Grammys was quite impressive..

One comment made me laugh the most. A member wrote that not only was everyone at his company talking about BTS's decision, but even his parents, both in their seventies and about as far removed from pop music as you can get, had asked him what had happened. BTS had become the topic of conversation for everyone in Korea.

Then, on Friday, the short-sighted music critic I wrote about on Wednesday appeared on Kim Ou-joon's program alongside two other music critics and argued that BTS probably wasn't going to win anyway, and that this was merely a power struggle between BTS and the Grammys.

The community completely lost its mind. People tore the argument apart, and there was a lot of profanity involved. Some even said they had emailed the program asking not to invite those critics back because they had completely missed the point, and are incompetent. Some even lamented that if Kim Young-dae were still alive, he would have been the one sitting there, giving us the thoughtful, nuanced perspective that only he could.

Judging by what I've seen here in Korea, and by the reactions I've been reading from around the world over the past few days, I believe BTS made exactly the right decision.

By choosing principles over trophies, they earned something that can't be placed on a shelf: the respect of people who had never considered themselves fans.

[Sal68 🪩¹²🪻 ⟭⟬👀⁶*⁷@ Hot Spurs @7btsfilmout]

My thoughts exactly.
BTS have always talked about the black artists that they grew up listening too and learned from and respected.
However, whenever the conversation of appropriation comes up, people tend to put BTS in the mix without correctly mentioning the fact that BTS have done, and always show their respects and giving flowers to their teachers.
NAS being at a BTS concert, my goodness, my heart is still pounding with so much joy and respect. I can only imagine how RM was feeling. The rest of the Tannies too.
My mind went straight to how I felt seeing RM and BTS perform with Lil Nas X, J-hope's collab with J. Cole, every time I hear "Change" with Wale, and then there is Bangtan working with Warren G.

What timing is this too. OMG 😱😱😱
In my books, this is monumental and I'm ever so humbled every time when such special moments happy. When my music worlds collide, and an explosion of RESPECT just materialises itself.

Ok I'll shut up now. 😱😱😱😱
#BTSHistory #ArtHasNoAliens
#BTS #방탄소년단 #아포방포 #아미

[Pop Core @TheePopCore]

BTS delivers a powerful performance of “ALIENS” at MetLife Stadium, with the crowd singing every word so loudly.

— The song is gaining a lot of attention following BTS' decision not to submit their music for Grammy consideration this year after the Recording Academy introduced the new “Best Asian Pop Music Performance” category.

— It confronts xenophobia, challenges prejudice in the Western music industry, and embraces their identity as cultural outsiders on the global stage.

[espnW @espnW]

Gets a head knock, waves goodbye to the crowd, daps up the opposition goalie.

Marta is a class act 💜🐐

[tay⁷ ✿🖤𝄢 LA D3&4, SFMOMA next! 🌈 @myjoonmymoon]

I was already mentally done with the Grammys when this album didn't get any nominations. It's a once in a lifetime, absolutely brilliant album - I call it "the album of my life". I still have chills every time I listen to it. 💙

[Rep. Pramila Jayapal @RepJayapal]

Prisciliano Trejo, who had leukemia, was reportedly denied medical care by ICE for 8 days while in a detention center run by CoreCivic.

He died just days later — and ICE is already shirking accountability. After denying him care, they released him to his family, where he died shortly after. They likely did this to avoid having another official death in custody and to keep their own horrific statistics from looking worse.

ICE and CoreCivic cannot get away with this. We must eliminate every for-profit detention facility and dismantle ICE entirely.

[Le Chanel💜⁷ ⟬⟭ ☘️🙏🙏🏽🙏🏼🙏🏾 (rest) @JustLeChanel7]

Yep! People really are getting it! 👌

Check out The Social's video! #TikTok https://t.co/GCDdHhGgeW

[♡ @amlysbang]

[teen VOGUE 👏]

— The Grammys 2027 Best Asian Pop Music Category Is Just Another Form of Segregation

There seems to be a pattern emerging here, and it becomes increasingly difficult to dismiss it the more you pay attention. It goes like this: A non-white artist breaks into mainstream-music consciousness by delivering a critically acclaimed project and looks likely to win a Grammy in a major category. Soon after, a new category is announced by the Recording Academy to help segregate these artists.

We can see this pattern in the splitting of the best country album category into “traditional country” and “contemporary country” after Beyoncé took home one gong for album of the year and another for best country album with Cowboy Carter in 2025. It’s in Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos ruling the zeitgeist in 2025 and 2026 and becoming the first Spanish-language winner of album of the year, with that win being followed up by the creation of a best Latin song category.

The mere existence of BTS threatens the myth that the only art worth engaging with comes from our side of the globe. The group’s discography also demonstrates the incomprehensibility of using national identity as a placeholder for genre, as Arirang is a melting pot of sounds and ideas: Rap-line heavy hip-hop tracks are placed beside airy pop and grunge anthems with a boldness that seamlessly follows the artistic depth of the members’ solo projects. They worked with collaborators of diverse nationalities and backgrounds, including Black hip-hop producers.

The addition of these new Grammy categories is not progress; it is tokenistic inclusion that dresses up white bias as recognition. The myth these measures help maintain, intentionally or not, is that non-white/non-English speaking artists exist in a vacuum, that their work is somehow less essential—that it does not help create the very fabric of culture.

https://t.co/r2pNH1JZsR

[ؘ @thveard]

hace 30 años, Tupac criticó a los Grammys por ser una industria controlada por gente desconectada del arte y del cambio. Años después, Namjoon hace referencia a él en 2.0: “Hit ’em up like (Tu)Pac. Hit ’em with the truth like Ra(kim)”

(Atácalos como Tupac. Enfréntalos con la verdad como Rakim)

ironíco que BTS esté haciendo exactamente eso, decir la verdad y desafiar un sistema que durante años los uso mientras les negaba el reconocimiento, ARIRANG es más de lo que pensamos

[⊹ ࣪ ˖ @nyhsjtjbts]

a lady at the checkout counter next to me saw my namjoon photocard hanging from my bag and went “this is one of those bts guys from the world cup show right? i had to google them because they’re so beautiful to look at” like yes ma’am this is one of those bts guys and they are all beautiful and talented and great human beings you go google them girl

[⟭⟬지지 💜⁷ ⟬⟭ ⦿ ☰ ☲ 🌅 아포방포 @yiyismochi]

Working on my last freebies for next week concerts #BTS_ARİRANG #Metlife it's not much but it's honest work and it was my end of the day therapy for the last few months:) 💜

Watercolor Arirang postcards

[mel⁷ is not in paradise @namspecs]

god I remember when this happened and everyone spotted the word love in their mother tongue in the visuals and it felt so special 🥺

[SuzzyLovesBTS⁷💜🤓 LAMRON @AToZ_BTS_]

WOW 🫠🎻🫠🎻🫠

It's so beautiful 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

[BTS Charts & News @btschartsxdaily]

OMG! The kids singing and dancing #BTS’s “Dynamite” with Chris Martin ! 😭💜💜

https://t.co/7Sk3Z4A9sP
#BTSHALFTIMESHOW #BTSxWorldCup2026

[Guinness World Records @GWR]

oh just our Guinness World Records ICONS BTS @ the World Cup Half-Time Show 🤩

[raccoona⁷ ⊙⊝⊜ @FRaccoona]

@Variety @seren_0613 I was gagged even though I knew they would deliver a great performance as they always do. But it is still an insane pressure to perform at such an event so I was kinda nervous and then totally blown away but how effortlessly cool bts looked and how amazing they sang😍

[mya✿⁷ IS SEEING BANGTAN!! 🪭 @jksstarlight]

not orange man trying to be part of the picture with Spain lmao gtfo 😭😭😂😂

[ESPN FC @ESPNFC]

BTS at the World Cup halftime show 🔥

[BTS Charts & News @btschartsxdaily]

THE SCREAMS FOR BTS!! THEY DESERVE THE WORLD 😭💜 SO PROUD OF THEM

BTS AT WORLD CUP 2026
#BTSxWORLDCUP2026
#BTSHALFTIMESHOW

[sdl ٭ @_sdl93]

BTS PERFORMS DYNAMITE!

#BTSxWORLDCUP2026