yk what pissing me off even more is the fact that they only mentioned east asian music as a part of the nominees as if asia is limited to only korea japan and china 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 just a bunch of useless racists making excuses
award shows that added a kpop category:
VMAs (since 2019)
EMAs (since 2021)
AMAs (since 2022)
BBMAs (since 2023)
iHeartRadio Awards (since 2024)
Grammys (new)
look at when all of this started happening...but sure, kpop twt will tell you bts did nothing for the asian market lol
arirang is the first and only album to chart all its songs on billboard global excl. us chart for 12 consecutive weeks.
arirang surpassed 3 billion streams on spotify in less than 3 months since its release. it became the first 2026 album to do so.
arirang broke the record for the longest charting album at #1 on spotify global weekly chart in 2026.
rolling stone, NME, and other publications selected arirang as one of the best albums of 2026 so far.
every single day - literally EVERY SINGLE DAY - arirang breaks a new record.
There’s a lot to unpack here, and I’m going to say it directly. I dont care if I get cancelled but this needs to be said.
For years, BTS were told they weren’t big enough, mainstream enough, or "Grammy material." Then they became one of the biggest acts in the world. They broke records, sold out stadiums across continents, topped charts repeatedly, and built a global cultural impact that few artists in history can match.
And when they became too successful to ignore?
The Grammys nominated "Dynamite" and "Butter"—both English-language songs.
Let that sink in.
The songs that got BTS into the major Grammy conversation were the songs that fit most comfortably into the Western industry framework. Yet BTS's discography is filled with critically acclaimed Korean-language music that has had enormous cultural and artistic impact.
Now we have a "Best Asian Pop Music Performance" category.
And before anyone calls that progress, let's ask the obvious question: why does there need to be a separate category at all?
If Asian artists are good enough to dominate global charts, sell millions of records, headline festivals, influence culture worldwide, and compete with every major artist in the industry, then they are good enough for the same categories as everyone else.
Inclusion isn't creating a separate lane after Asian artists prove they can win in the existing ones.
Inclusion is treating them as equals.
That's why BTS's lyrics in "Aliens" hit so hard:
"어쩜 그래 shameless
예의를 차려 we aliens
해는 동쪽에서 risin'
Aliens, aliens"
No matter how successful some artists become, there are still systems and institutions that treat them as perpetual outsiders.
And that's exactly why this conversation matters.
Because when BTS were impossible to ignore, the response shouldn't have been to create another box and place Asian artists inside it. The response should have been to judge them by the same standards as every other artist competing for the biggest awards in music.
ARMYs, we have a mission.
Talk about Arirang everywhere. Put it in AOTY conversations. Put it in ROTY conversations. Write threads. Make edits. Share analyses. Start discussions.
If we believe it deserves those nominations, then let's make enough noise that nobody can pretend it doesn't belong in the room.
They ignored BTS until they couldn't.
Let's make sure they can't ignore Arirang either.
bts BEEN a threat to american music industry so ofc they gon try their hardest to separate them from main categories as long as the industry plants & mediocre white artists don't get snubbed
Billboard Top K-Artists" is a K-POP fan voting campaign jointly conducted by Billboard Korea, Billboard China, and TME Chart.
Voting ends in 8 days, June 23, 2026
Final results of "Billboard Top K-Artists" are determined by combining the voting results from both channels. The finally selected artists will receive global promotional benefits through Billboard Korea, Billboard China, and TME Chart.
1. go to https://t.co/JUGozPTd3V
2. register (only email is needed)
3. click on the “Male Group” and "Male Solo" categories
4. vote up to 32 times a day per account
Ofcourse they did. So all their main categories can remain safe and secured for the American Acts. The fact that they face xenophobia allegations every year and they keep proving them right every year.
@PopBase here i'll reword it for you:
"the GRAMMYs are introducing their first asian category as a form of cultural segregation isolating asian artists into a separate category while excluding greater talent from outside their country & making the industry revolve around themselves" ❤️
Indian music market is one of the biggest music markets in the world but granny would only limit their asian pop category for kpop jpop & cpop not to mention many Indian Artists have won grammies before!
Calling it “Asian pop” is a lazy name. Asian music isn’t one genre, it has many different styles and industries with their own identity. Putting it all under one name ignores that diversity and reduces rich cultures into something oversimplified and misleading.