mind you this has been an ongoing criticism of the grammys for years but bts pulling out suddenly has every chuck sally and harry running to rant about it😭😭😭
OUCH.
"Each of the seven members posted the same brief statement announcing that the group would not submit its music to the Grammys this year, adding a hope that music might be heard and loved for what it is rather than sorted by region or language.
Big Hit Music asked that the statement be taken as written, and taken as written it is remarkable, because it asks for nothing. A boycott makes demands. This made none, set no conditions, named no grievance, and offered the Recording Academy no way to win them back. You negotiate with an institution whose judgment you still need. The one whose judgment you have outgrown, you simply inform.
[...]
An award has no value of its own; it is worth exactly what the wanting of it is worth, and the wanting must be freely given. For five years the biggest band on earth gave it freely, showing up, performing, losing, returning, lending the ceremony the one asset it cannot manufacture, the sight of someone enormous still hoping.
That hope was always the Grammys' property more than BTS's weakness. It has now been withdrawn, without anger, without demands, in a statement short enough to fit on a phone screen, by seven men who knocked at a door for years and were at last, generously, offered a smaller one."
BTS becomes the first artist in history to simultaneously occupy the entire top 10 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. singles chart.
They hold the entire top 13.
"In a time where music is consumed like instant food, buying albums, which isn't a necessity, is a great and admirable act.. in a time where albums have lost meaning, I thank you so much for loving our children, that we crafted with great care."
- Namjoon