True Taste Korea

Asian Pop

  • BTS and Stray Kids Skip the 2027 Grammys — Is the Asian Pop Category Dividing Fans?

    TTK Original — Beyond the Headlines

    Two of K-pop’s biggest groups will be absent from the 2027 Grammy race. BTS announced that it would not submit music for consideration, while JYP Entertainment confirmed that Stray Kids had also submitted no entries.

    The decisions come as the Recording Academy prepares to introduce Best Asian Pop Music Performance, a new award intended to recognize Asian pop music.

    But the announcement has raised a difficult question: Does giving Asian pop its own category create more recognition—or another boundary?

    Why BTS Is Sitting Out the Grammys

    BTS made its position clear in July 2026. The group expressed its hope that music would be appreciated without being divided by language or region.

    That message carries particular weight from a group that has already achieved worldwide success and received five Grammy nominations.

    For BTS, the debate appears to go beyond whether an Asian pop award would be easier to win. It raises a larger question about how global music is classified.

    If a Korean-language song reaches listeners around the world, should its language determine the category in which it is recognized?

    Did Stray Kids Make the Same Statement?

    Not officially.

    JYP Entertainment confirmed that Stray Kids did not submit music for the 2027 awards, but the company did not explain why.

    Some fans have interpreted the decision as solidarity with BTS. Others point out that choosing not to submit music does not necessarily establish a political or artistic protest.

    That distinction matters. The two groups made the same submission decision, but only BTS publicly explained its position.

    What Reddit Fans Are Debating

    On Reddit, discussions have reflected competing views about the new category.

    Some fans welcome an additional opportunity for Asian musicians to receive recognition. They argue that dedicated categories can spotlight artists who might otherwise receive less attention.

    Others worry that Asian pop could be treated as a separate musical space, even when its artists compete directly with mainstream international stars.

    The concern is not simply about winning another trophy. It is about whether K-pop is being recognized as global pop—or continually introduced as something outside it.

    Can K-Pop Still Win Major Grammy Awards?

    Yes.

    Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. has clarified that eligibility for the Asian pop category does not prevent artists from competing for major awards such as Album of the Year, Record of the Year or Song of the Year.

    The Academy also says the new category is designed to expand recognition, not restrict it.

    Following consultations with members of the Asian music community, the organization confirmed that the category would proceed in 2027.

    That clarification addresses an important misconception, although it does not resolve every concern about how voters may perceive Asian artists.

    The Bigger Question Behind the Controversy

    The Grammys are attempting to recognize the growth of Asian pop at a time when K-pop has already established a worldwide audience.

    Those two realities create an unusual tension.

    A dedicated category may help introduce more Asian artists to Grammy voters. Yet the same category can prompt questions about why globally successful music needs a regional label.

    Neither outcome is guaranteed. Much will depend on how artists are nominated across categories and how the awards evolve.

    The real debate is not whether Asian pop deserves recognition. It is what meaningful recognition should look like when music has already crossed borders.

    For BTS, Stray Kids and their fans, that question will remain relevant long after the 2027 Grammy ceremony.

    Update: Stray Kids Also Skip the 2027 Grammys

    There is now another major development in the Grammy debate.

    JYP Entertainment confirmed that Stray Kids did not submit any music for consideration for the 2027 Grammy Awards. Because the submission deadline has passed, the group will not be eligible for nominations this cycle.

    The timing has attracted attention because BTS had already announced that it would not submit music for the same Grammy cycle. The Recording Academy has also confirmed that its new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category will go ahead at the 2027 ceremony after consultations with members of the Asian music community.

    But one distinction is important: JYP has not said that Stray Kids skipped the Grammys because of the Asian Pop category. The group therefore should not automatically be described as officially supporting BTS’s position.

    What we know is simpler—and perhaps more interesting.

    Two of the biggest K-pop groups in the world will not have submitted music for the 2027 Grammys, while the Academy is moving forward with a category created specifically to recognize Asian pop.

    That leaves the larger question unresolved:

    Is the new category a bigger door for Asian music—or another boundary around it?

    The answer may become clearer only after the category is actually used and we see how Asian artists are recognized across the Grammys as a whole.

  • BTS Said No to the Grammys—Then Won a K-pop VMA. So What’s the Difference?

    BTS has just created one of the most interesting award-show stories of 2026.

    In July, the group announced that it would not submit its music for consideration at the 2027 Grammy Awards. Then, just two months later, BTS won three awards at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards—including Best K-pop.

    At first glance, that may look contradictory.

    Why would BTS say no to one major American music award while accepting a trophy in a category specifically labeled “K-pop” at another?

    The answer is more complicated than it appears.

    Why Did BTS Skip the Grammys?

    In July, all seven BTS members announced that they would not enter music for consideration at the 2027 Grammys.

    Their statement came after the Recording Academy introduced a new category called Best Asian Pop Music Performance for the 69th Grammy Awards.

    BTS said they hoped music could be “heard and loved for what it is” rather than being divided by region or language.

    The timing immediately attracted attention because the new category includes music from Asian markets and explicitly covers genres such as K-pop, J-pop and C-pop.

    The Recording Academy, however, presented the new category differently. Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said the purpose was to recognize the depth and growth of pop music coming from Asia and emphasized that Asian artists would still be eligible for the Grammy’s general-field categories.

    So there are two different perspectives here.

    The Academy described the new award as an opportunity for greater recognition.

    BTS’s statement raised a different question: Should music be separated by region or language in the first place?

    Then BTS Won Best K-pop at the VMAs

    Here’s where the story gets interesting.

    On September 27, BTS attended the 2026 MTV VMAs in neither person nor performance. Yet the group won all three categories in which it was nominated.

    BTS won Song of the Year for “SWIM,” Best K-pop, and Best Group.

    The Best K-pop award was not a new concept at the VMAs. The category has existed since 2019, and BTS had already won it several times.

    In 2026, the victory gave BTS its fourth Best K-pop trophy.

    At the same ceremony, however, something even more significant happened.

    BTS won Song of the Year, becoming the first K-pop group to win that category. The previous year’s winner was BLACKPINK’s Rosé, who won with Bruno Mars for “APT.”

    That distinction helps explain why the Grammy and VMA situations are not necessarily identical.

    A K-pop Category Is Not Always the Same Thing

    The important question is not simply whether an award category contains the words “K-pop.”

    The bigger question is how that category functions within the awards ceremony.

    At the Grammys, the new Asian Pop category was created as part of a broader restructuring of the awards. Critics worried that creating a separate regional category could reinforce a division between Asian artists and the general categories.

    The Recording Academy rejected that interpretation and said artists would remain eligible for the general field.

    At the VMAs, meanwhile, BTS has been competing in the Best K-pop category for years while also receiving recognition in broader categories.

    The group’s 2026 Song of the Year victory is perhaps the clearest example.

    BTS did not win only Best K-pop.

    It won one of the ceremony’s major general categories.

    And That’s What Makes 2026 Interesting

    BTS’s award-season story is therefore more complicated than simply saying the group “boycotted” one show and attended another.

    The group declined to submit music for Grammy consideration, while continuing to participate in the VMAs and winning three awards.

    Those decisions happened within different award systems, with different category structures and different histories.

    There is also an important detail that is easy to miss.

    BTS did not actually attend the 2026 VMAs ceremony. The group was absent because of scheduling conflicts, according to Yonhap, even though it won every category in which it was nominated.

    So the group was not standing on the VMA stage choosing between a K-pop award and a general award.

    Instead, the awards arrived while BTS was continuing its schedule elsewhere.

    What Happens Next?

    The Grammy decision may become even more interesting in the future.

    The 2027 Grammys will take place in February, and BTS’s latest album ARIRANG will not be submitted for consideration by the group.

    Whether BTS changes its position in future years remains unknown.

    For now, however, the contrast between the two awards shows has created a fascinating question about the future of K-pop.

    Should successful Asian artists receive more dedicated categories?

    Or does creating separate categories risk making it harder for them to compete in the biggest general categories?

    There is no simple answer.

    But BTS’s 2026 award season has made the question impossible to ignore.

    The group said no to Grammy consideration after the creation of a new Asian pop category.

    Then it won Best K-pop, Best Group, and Song of the Year at the VMAs.

    And perhaps the most interesting part is that the biggest story wasn’t the number of trophies.

    It was where those trophies came from—and what those categories say about how the American music industry sees K-pop.