The Grammys’ Mistake and Where BTS Wants to Go
On musical categories and choosing the destination of one’s life
The achievements of BTS have been extraordinary. Their presence at the halftime show of the FIFA World Cup final was overwhelming. With members returning from military service and the group once again taking the world stage, they displayed the strength of people who have already travelled a long and demanding road together.
It is against this background that a new Grammy category devoted to Asian pop music has become the subject of debate. BTS responded by making clear that they did not want their music to be judged according to language or region, and announced their intention not to participate in this year’s Grammys. I find their position admirably lucid and principled.
The Grammys may well have intended to celebrate the growing vitality of Asian music and give it greater visibility. A new category can create an entrance for artists who have previously been overlooked. Yet an entrance can gradually become a ceiling. If telling musicians, “This is where we will recognise you,” also keeps them away from the central stage, then an act of celebration begins to resemble an act of containment.
Is “Asian” a Musical Genre?
Hip-hop and jazz are genres with distinctive histories and musical forms. Anyone, regardless of origin, can enter them and make them their own. “Asian,” by contrast, does not describe a particular sonic structure or artistic technique. It primarily denotes geography and identity. Asia contains countless languages, cultures, rhythms, and traditions. To gather them all under a single musical label is inevitably reductive.
The worldwide rise of K-pop and Japanese pop is presumably what prompted the Grammys to create a new category. But when music is already being heard, sung, and danced to around the world, why return it to a geographically marked shelf? BTS’s argument—that music should be evaluated as music—is remarkably simple, and powerful precisely because of that simplicity.
The Grammy Awards are determined by votes cast by members of the Recording Academy. There is no single malicious decision-maker to blame. Even so, it is reasonable to ask whether the institution has too often responded to new musical forces by placing them in separate subcategories rather than recognising them in its central awards. Categories can protect diversity, but they can also become boundaries that protect an established centre. That is why the voices of the people being classified matter as much as the intentions of those creating the classification.
I believe the Grammys should reconsider this decision. Yet the significance of the episode reaches beyond the architecture of an awards ceremony. What struck me most in BTS’s statement was their declaration, in effect, that this was not where they wanted to go.
A Journey Through Life Needs a Destination
As Matsuo BashÅ suggested, life is a journey. We move through the events of each day, feeling, learning, and changing as we go. But a journey also has another essential element: a destination.
It matters that we can imagine where we want to go. The destination may be distant, perhaps so distant that reaching it seems almost impossible. The road may be difficult, and we may have to take many detours. Still, if we carry within us a clear image of the place we want to reach, we can continue making the effort. If, on the other hand, we merely accept a destination chosen for us by someone else, then even arriving somewhere prestigious may not feel like living our own journey.
From the outside, the Grammys’ proposed category may look like an honourable destination. Some artists may quite reasonably wish to be nominated for it and to win it. That desire deserves respect. But BTS has never simply aspired to be celebrated in a special compartment as “music representing Asia.” They want to be recognised and respected as musicians, without a qualifying note attached to their language or region.
Their decision, therefore, is not rejection for rejection’s sake. It is a way of protecting the destination of their own journey. When an authority says, “We have prepared this place for you,” they are answering, “Thank you, but that is not where we are trying to go.” Such a response expresses both pride in their music and the determination to choose their own direction.
The World Is Listening Before the Prize Arrives
In one important sense, BTS has already achieved much of what it sought without a Grammy. People around the world listen to their music, learn the lyrics, dance to it, and make it part of their lives. When I visited Chile for an academic conference, BTS and K-pop were playing naturally in the texture of everyday life. In a Spanish-speaking city far from Korea, Korean-language music was moving people. That fact is more eloquent than the name of any award.
The Spanish-speaking world was among the regions that recognised the appeal of BTS and other K-pop artists relatively early. Today, music from that same cultural sphere is transforming the global music industry, including the American scene. When Bad Bunny reached the stage of major awards and the Super Bowl, some objected to non-English-language music occupying the centre. Yet he did not respond by diluting his language or culture. He used the occasion to celebrate a broader idea of the Americas and their shared human energy.
Neither Bad Bunny nor BTS made themselves smaller in order to be admitted to the centre. They carried their languages and histories with them and, in doing so, began to change what the centre means. They are not seeking a seat reserved for the periphery. They are seeking a common musical ground on which anyone can meet anyone else. On that ground, English, Korean, and Spanish do not determine rank. Different languages become ways for the same human emotions to resonate.
We Are Free to Choose Where We Are Going
BTS’s statement moved me because I, too, have a place I want to reach. I am not there yet. On some days I seem to be drawing closer; on others I feel as though I have moved farther away. Yet I can continue the journey because I have not let go of the image of that destination.
The direction of a life should not be decided by someone else. It need not be the place indicated by a prestigious award or the destination society defines as success. We are free to imagine where we genuinely want to go. We are also free to express who we are on the way there. Rather than fitting ourselves into a category prepared by others, our own journey may eventually create a new category—or even a new map.
Whether or not you are a fan of BTS, this episode leaves us with a question worth considering: Where do you want to go? What is the destination of the journey that is your life? BTS has offered more than an objection to the Grammys. They have given us a quiet but powerful affirmation of freedom: the destination of your journey is yours to choose.
Transcribed and translated into English by AI from Ken Mogi's talk
