Writer: Connor 

Edited by: Alexis 

Over the course of its 6-decade-long history since 1959, The Grammy Awards have become by far the most prominent and prestigious music award ceremony in the world—its reach and influence extending well beyond the borders of the United States that it was founded on. Today, millions of people from all across the globe set their sights on the yearly nominations, ardently hoping for their favorite musicians and artists to make the cut. Many perceive these shout-outs as a form of acknowledgment from the music industry at large, the greatest honor and validation for an artist to receive—whether they’re from America or not. 

The past decade has seen a significant influx of interest and popularity towards various genres of music that hail from non-American origins. Whether it be Reggaeton and Música Mexicana (music of Mexico) that are the face of modern Latin American music, or K-pop from South Korea, these genres of music have been garnering fans from all over the world, with many also being students from ISM. Ever since the 90s, the Grammys have been steadily introducing world music categories for their award shows, with music from various regions receiving more and more representation over the years. But despite this, K-pop has still been consistently receiving the short end of the stick, and this still seems to be the case for the 2024 Grammys, as well.

As far as any K-pop representation in the Grammys goes, BTS with their five unwon nominations and 2019 live performance is where the list ends. This year, various groups like Stray Kids, NewJeans, and TOMORROW X TOGETHER were completely unmentioned in the nominations list despite each hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (Stray Kids with “5-Star”, NewJeans with “Get Up” and TOMORROW X TOGETHER with “The Name Chapter: Temptation”), making numbers that rival even the most relevant pop stars in America. Many other popular acts like TWICE, SEVENTEEN, and FIFTY FIFTY have made their submissions into various categories, but were all completely written off by the Grammys, and not a single name was able to make it in. The Grammys’ attempts to represent more world music might claim otherwise, but clearly there still is a remaining bias against non-American music genres within the award show. Whether it be over language barriers or cultural differences, K-pop does not seem to have a place in the Grammys for now.

Sophomore Bella, one of the many K-pop enthusiasts in ISM says,“As a fan, when my favorite groups get nominated [in award shows], it makes me happy to know that they’re getting acknowledgement worldwide.”  She continues by saying, “Especially the underrated K-pop groups/soloists who aren’t in famous companies and who lack acknowledgment despite their efforts to debut and the hard work they do to maintain their jobs as idols.” 

She believes that the attention a nomination can give to popular K-pop groups can extend to other lesser-known artists in the genre as well. “When more and more K-pop groups get acknowledged by prevalent music shows especially Western ones like the Grammys, I think more underrated/rising K-artists would also be acknowledged for their hard work.”

With slowly diminishing relevance among fan communities, the Grammys’ gradual decline is contrasted with the ever-increasing popularity of K-pop, which the award show is so insistent on overlooking, despite their apparent push to be inclusive of world music. This counterintuitiveness of the Grammys would end up further alienating K-pop fans both in and outside of ISM. The Grammys need to do more, not only for the sake of maintaining viewership from K-pop fans but also to shine the spotlight on the K-pop juggernauts and smaller artists of the genre. At the very least, they should be nominating more bands in the award shows to give K-pop the long-overdue recognition that they deserve—especially in categories like “Best Music Video,” “Best Pop Duo/Group Performance” or “Best Global Music Performance.”

Works Cited

“Stray Kids: Biography, Music & News.” Billboard, http://www.billboard.com/artist/stray-kids/chart-history/tlp/. Accessed 25 Nov. 2023.

“Newjeans: Biography, Music & News.” Billboard, http://www.billboard.com/artist/newjeans/chart-history/tlp/. Accessed 25 Nov. 2023.“Tomorrow X Together: Biography, Music & News.” Billboard, http://www.billboard.com/artist/tomorrow-x-together/chart-history/tlp/. Accessed 25 Nov. 2023.