With Stray Kids confirmed to be not submitting entries to the 69th Grammy Awards, following BTS, the debate surrounding the Recording Academy's newly created 'Best Asian Pop Music Performance' category is expanding beyond individual groups' choices into an industry-wide K-pop issue.

JYP Entertainment stated on October 2 that Stray Kids did not submit any works by the submission deadline for the 69th Grammy Awards. The company did not explain the reason for the non-submission and did not confirm any connection to the new category. Only the fact of non-submission was confirmed, with the background of the decision remaining undisclosed.

Under Grammy rules, music that is not officially submitted cannot appear on the preliminary voting ballot. Without making the preliminary list, works cannot advance to the nomination stage and are excluded from award competition. Stray Kids will therefore not compete in any category at this year's ceremony.

The starting point of the controversy was BTS. On July 29, all seven members simultaneously posted identical statements on their individual Instagram accounts announcing they would not submit entries to this year's Grammys. They added the hope that music would be heard and loved as music itself, rather than being divided by region or language.

BTS did not directly mention the new category in their posts and did not specifically explain their reasons for not submitting. However, the sentence mentioning 'region' and 'language' together came just over a month after the creation of the Asian pop category. With the timing and phrasing overlapping, the statement was widely interpreted as being aimed at the new category.

The Criterion Is 'Language,' Not Genre

In mid-June, the Recording Academy announced category changes for the 69th ceremony, creating the Asian pop category. Under the rules, a candidate song must feature an Asian language playing a significant role within a bilingual or multilingual structure, to the extent that the song can be identified by that Asian language. Even songs mixing multiple languages may not qualify if the proportion of the Asian language falls short of this standard. Conversely, recordings sung entirely in an Asian language qualify by default.

Existing Grammy categories are divided by musical format, such as pop, rock, rap, and country. The new category added criteria based on lyrical language and cultural origin. Whether a song is sung in a particular language, rather than its musical form, became the qualifying requirement for eligibility.

Criticism has concentrated on this point. Critics argue that dividing categories by identity rather than musical form could push Asian music out of competition in the general categories, leaving it confined to a separate space rather than competing on equal footing in the general fields.

Overlaying the rules with BTS's achievements this year makes the problem concrete. BTS released their fifth full-length album 'Arirang' on March 20. It was their first full-group album in three years and nine months since the anthology album 'Proof' in June 2022, and the title track 'SWIM' entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number one. However, since 'SWIM' is centered on English lyrics, it would hardly meet the requirements of the new category. A category created to celebrate Asian pop ended up structurally unable to accommodate the signature song of the Asian group with the biggest achievements this year.

Recording Academy: 'We Are Not Trying to Divide'

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said he was disappointed by BTS's decision but, as a music creator himself, understood and respected it.

Mason explained that the new category was created to honor the depth, diversity, and growth of pop coming out of Asia. He emphasized that the intent was to broaden the scope of what the 15,000-member voting body recognizes, not to divide artists. He added that artists can target both the general and new categories, and that the creation of the new category does not exclude Asian artists from competing in the general categories. The Academy decided to run the new category as planned even after BTS's non-submission.

The Academy's explanation has some basis. A separate category can serve as a pathway onto nomination ballots for Asian-region artists unfamiliar to Grammy voters. The point of contention is where that pathway leads. Whether the new category becomes a gateway leading Asian music into the general categories or a partition keeping it within that category is the core of the debate.

Grammy and K-pop history shows this question is not a light one. BTS has been nominated for a Grammy five times but has never won. In November 2020, they made the nominee list for the 63rd Grammy Awards with 'Dynamite,' becoming the first Korean pop music group to receive a Grammy nomination, and they performed on the ceremony stage multiple times afterward, but have yet to receive a trophy.

At the 68th ceremony in February this year, 'Golden' from the Netflix animation 'KPop Demon Hunters' won Best Song Written for Visual Media. It was the first time K-pop songwriters and producers received a Grammy, but that category honors the songwriters who wrote the song, not the singers or groups. The work was also produced by Sony Pictures Animation of the United States. At the same ceremony, 'APT.' by ROSÉ and Bruno Mars was nominated in three categories—Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance—but did not win any. Ultimately, no Grammy trophy has ever been awarded in the name of a K-pop singer or group.

The Order of Recognition Has Reversed

BTS withdrew their submission at a time when observers predicted multiple nominations for this year's 'Arirang,' including Album of the Year. At a point when nominations were considered possible, they chose to remove themselves from the competition.

BTS was once a group that set Grammy nomination itself as a goal, achieving it in 2020 with 'Dynamite.' That same group has now prioritized whether to accept the ceremony's classification criteria over whether they could be nominated.

This change connects to the path K-pop has taken in gaining recognition abroad. In the past, American markets and American industry awards were gateways to the world stage for non-English-speaking singers. The order was: first gain recognition in the United States, then be evaluated as a global success.

BTS effectively walked this order in reverse. Fandom, streaming, and concert demand formed on a global scale first, and the Billboard charts and American awards followed, reflecting that. It was not American recognition that created global success, but rather American charts and awards belatedly confirming already-formed global influence. Their comeback concert in downtown Seoul in March and their halftime stage at the FIFA World Cup final in North America in July follow the same pattern.

However, it is too early to interpret this incident as the collapse of a U.S.-centric order. The Grammys remain the most symbolically significant award in the global music industry, and the new category is proceeding toward its first ceremony as scheduled, regardless of BTS's non-submission. What this incident confirms lies elsewhere: a crack has appeared in the structure in which a single awards ceremony unilaterally determined the hierarchy of global music, and for the first time, there is a case of an artist who built influence outside the ceremony rejecting its standards.

[This article highlights stars nominated for the Netizen Awards. The Netizen Awards is an offline fan voting platform that does not sell voting rights and provides equal voting opportunities to all users. Rankings are determined by fans' voluntary and consistent participation rather than capital, and the cumulative 79 million votes are a record of pure fan devotion built from each individual fan's choice. This article was partially assisted by AI.]