Maia Kim

[Maia Kim @MaiaMoonchild]

RJ goes to Bangkok ☀️✈️ @BTS_twt @BT21_ #BTSLoveyourselfBKK

[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.

[Asian Entertainment And Culture @AsianEAC]

The behavior is this person clearly demonstrates why she should not have been a part of the decision making body that created the Asian category.

Zeena Koda, #bts did not tear #grammy down. You were already broken in the first place.

BTS didn’t ask anyone to change anything. They just informed ARMYs they won’t participate in your show.

Yes, it’s easy to tell people what to change on the internet but that’s why supposed intelligent professionals are supposed to do the hard part which puzzles me why you are there to begin with because you are clearly not one.

You also need some hardcore PR training or maybe some character training. Scratch that, You need some character training.
/F

[BTS Daily Chile⁷ @BTSDailyChile]

El periodista chileno Mauricio Jürgensen publicó una columna en El Dínamo que resume con claridad por qué la decisión de BTS ha generado un debate mucho más amplio que el K-pop.

«"Mientras el público derribó hace años las fronteras entre idiomas y mercados gracias al streaming, los Grammy parecen empeñados en volver a levantarlas.»

«Por eso el gesto de BTS trasciende al K-pop. No es una protesta identitaria. Es una declaración de principios. No piden una categoría nueva. Piden no necesitarla.»

«Y quizás ahí esté el golpe más duro para los Grammy. Porque cuando uno de los artistas más influyentes del pop contemporáneo decide que ya no necesita su validación, el prestigio cambia de lugar. Ya no lo entrega el premio. Lo pone en cuestión quien puede darse el lujo de rechazarlo.»

«Tal vez BTS no jubiló una categoría. Tal vez empezó a jubilar al Grammy."»

— Mauricio Jürgensen, El Dínamo.

© https://t.co/Rtg2tL8I7n

[Mey⁷ @eternalwithbts]

Koreli bir vatandaşın grammy ve BTS hakkında yazdıkları gündem olmuş, benim de okurken tüylerim diken diken oldu diye paylaşmak istedim:

başlık: ülke toprağımız küçük olabilir, peki ya gökyüzümüz de mi küçük?

“Kore büyük bir ülke değil, global müzik sektörünün merkezinde hiçbir zaman yer almadı. korece de, ingilizcenin aksine, her gidilen yerde konuşulan ve anlaşılan bir dil de değil. ama küçük bir toprak parçasında doğduk diye bakış açımızı küçük bir gökyüzüyle sınırlayacak değiliz.

BTS, korece şarkılar söyleyerek Pasifik okyanusunu ve Atlas okyanusunu aştı. farklı dilleri konuşan insanlar onların şarkılarını hep bir ağızdan söyledi. kimileri yalnızlığına yoldaş buldu, kimileri kendini sevmeyi öğrendi, kimileri ise çaresizliğin ortasında yeniden yaşama tutunacak o gücü buldu.

eğer grammy onlara bir ödül verirse bunu onlarla birlikte sevinçle kutlarız ama vermezseler de BTS'in yarattığı bu dünya küçülüp gitmeyecek. hiçbir unvan veya etiket, BTS'in müziğinin yankılandığı gökyüzünü daraltamaz.

bir ödül, müzisyenin ellerindedir ancak bir şarkı ise insanın kalbindedir.

bir ödül rafının sınırları vardır ancak bir şarkının uçabileceği gökyüzünün ise asla sınırları yoktur.

bizim gökyüzümüz, Kore Yarımadasıyla sınırlı değil. Pasifik ve Atlas okyanusunu aşarak, ülkelerin ödül salonlarının ya da bölge ve dile göre ayrılmış sınırlarının ötesine geçiyor.

ve işte o gökyüzü, tüm evrene ulaşıyor. BTS'in müziği de o evreni doldurmaya her zaman devam edecek.”

[Livheartt⁷ met hobi | ㉧㉣㉣ | 🦢🤍 @Livheartt]

Wrong day to find out BTS’s ARMY aren’t just a bunch of school girls.

Get f*cked. Idc.

[chart radar @chartradar_]

Interesting logic from Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr.: British artists are simply pop artists, while Asian, African, and Latino artists are categorized by their continent.

[Georgina 🥢🪭⊙⊝⊜ @georgina_1st]

Oh please read this 💜
“That’s the part the Grammys should be mourning.
Because they had something extraordinarily rare: one of the biggest acts in the world genuinely valued their recognition.

And they squandered it.

Year after year, BTS showed up. Performed. Smiled. Brought the audience. Generated the headlines. Treated the nomination like an honor. Allowed the Grammy to remain positioned as something worth chasing.

Until eventually the chase became more embarrassing for the institution dangling the prize than for the artists who hadn’t received it.

And now, after BTS finally stopped running, the Grammys want to explain that they’ve created MORE opportunities for recognition?

Baby, the opportunity expired.

You had seven global superstars standing at your door believing what was inside mattered.

You kept them waiting so long they built something bigger outside.”

https://t.co/AFJE8dzvUy

[Shan saw Outro: Tear Live in 2026 HOLY SHIT 🪭 @readonlyshan]

The mistake these people always make is addressing ARMY as if we are a bunch of immature teenagers and not intelligent, eloquent women who have made it our business to study the music industry and its institutions inside out

[Maia Kim @MaiaMoonchild]

@RMHildebrandt Send

[ᴮᴱLiam⁷ ⁱˢ ᴾʳᵒᵒᶠ 💜 @mint_suga80]

#FESTA after party at Yeouido! #BTS10thAnniversary

[ᴮᴱLiam⁷ ⁱˢ ᴾʳᵒᵒᶠ 💜 @mint_suga80]

#BTS10thAnniversary from the fireworks zone 🥹🥹🥹

[Giorgia 👽 @thatgiorgia]

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So, I designed a free Figma file with 200 product images for your Notion template.

It's easily worth $19 but it's free for the next 24 hours.

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[Maia Kim @MaiaMoonchild]

@thatgiorgia @NotionHQ visuals

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@theecomlife GPT

[Maia Kim @MaiaMoonchild]

@WayneTheWizardd Funnel

[Maia Kim @MaiaMoonchild]

@onurgenes Cold

[Maia Kim @MaiaMoonchild]

@WaqarSaaS ok

[Maia Kim @MaiaMoonchild]

@ModestMitkus 👋🏼

[Maia Kim @MaiaMoonchild]

@LuxCopy Ok zaddy