The Grammys, one of the most awaited—if not the most awaited—musical award events of the year, released its award nominations a couple of weeks ago.
Today, the big celebration awaits in just a couple of hours. Winners will be announced and celebrities are already walking down the red carpet.
But, let’s be honest—since the nominations came out, things started to look dim for this year’s Grammys.
Usually, fanatics and music junkies alike revel over the much-expected list, asking themselves if their favorite artists made it into the big list—and once they confirmed that yes, their favorite artist made it in, they’ll make sure to spam one’s social media with posts about it.
This year though, it was different.
Instead of fans eagerly ranting about why their favorite artist should win the nomination, dissatisfied K-pop fanatics instead took to social media to rant for other reasons. What are they ranting about? Boomers, they argue, took over this year’s Grammy’s nominations.
All the nominees were not people you would see Millenials or “Zoomers” (as people refer to Gen Z) voting for. And honestly? they aren’t wrong.
Like, who in the world is Maggie Rogers? There were artists who people never even heard about until now these nominations, and there are other artists that simply deserved more recognition. The Academy left out many artists that deserved to be nominated. There were artists who completely blew out through the whole year of 2019, but were simply not nominated.
The fan’s favorite artist not getting nominated could be problematic for the Grammys in the years to come. If the artists people like aren’t being nominated then there really isn’t a purpose for watching the show—which, not to mention that televised awards are already on the decline. This is going to cost the grammys a lot of viewers—they are forgetting that today’s zoomers will be tomorrow’s main viewers.
K-pop groups are currently breaking records across the global music industry, and not a single one of them was nominated for an award. K-pop artists work for months without a break, sacrificing their social lives.
Why is it that these artists aren’t being nominated when they are being heard globally? Is k-pop not popular when groups like BTS have broken Youtube records, has performed at countless shows, and even have given a speech in front of the United Nations? K-pop relevance cannot be ignored. The famous K-pop group NCT 127 even performed at Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, so the excuse of saying that they do not have an American base would not be valid.
Why is it so hard for them to be nominated for an award? They deserve it.
There is a huge discrepancy between the artists who deserved to be nominated and those that actually were and this can’t go unrecognized.
There are so many artists that most millennials and zoomers don’t even know about in some of the existent categories. Nobody listens to country music these days, for instance. But, country music as a category was chosen over adding K-pop as a possible and better category.
The people who make these nominations need to understand and know their demographic, and nominate people that are relevant to viewers. Award ceremonies are on the decline—less and less people are watching them—and nominating artists that only people that live under rocks know about is not going to get the Grammy’s any viewers.
Artists whose songs and videos have millions and heck even billions of downloads from spotify, youtube, etc aren’t being nominated and this is going to evidently result in even less viewers. Some of these artists are not even like individuals such as Cardi B or Billie Ellish, who everyone knows about even if one is not a fan of their music. They nominated people like “Tank,” “The Bangas,” and “Maggie Rogers” that literally only their mother knows.
There should be another category implemented if that’s the issue because there are categories for country, Latin American music, and soul, yet there isn’t one for asian, or more specifically, K-pop music. K-pop artists’ fame is rising and the Grammy’s should begin awarding their talent.
In K-pop, one doesn’t only admire the music, but the message behind the music and elements in every music video. K-pop is on a rise without a doubt and the Grammy’s should account for that.
The categories don’t nominate global artists, they only nominate latins and americans. The world encompasses more ethnicities and types of music other than pop and latin pop. there should be more inclusiveness with the grammys, especially since they have been around for so long.
The artists who were nominated without a doubt may have deserved it, but some K-pop groups deserve it just as much. It is sad that their fans don’t have the opportunity to see their groups be nominated for an award when they deserve it so much.
The Grammys have some serious fixing to do.
