I was originally under the impression that the Asian Pop catergory was created as some olive branch to Hybe, to get an award for their groups. But was kind of surprised by BTS publicly denouncing it. I also didn't realize their latest album wouldn't have qualified anyway. It makes sense that this was another marketing tactic that could paint BTS as revolutionary, but also screwing over other Asian acts that could qualify and win, since now they're "sale outs" and not as woke as their faves.
In my opinion, this decision was at least partly coming from Hybe wanting to put more resources in their newer groups like Katseye and Cortis. This album clearly didn’t do as well as they wanted and who knows how much longer the group will really be active. This way, they got a small publicity bounce (at least in the desi press) and fed the parasocial bond with their fandom.
You’re right though that this puts a target on any acts nominated for the award that their fandom sees as “competition” like SKZ. It could get very messy on X…
I was originally under the impression that the Asian Pop catergory was created as some olive branch to Hybe, to get an award for their groups. But was kind of surprised by BTS publicly denouncing it. I also didn't realize their latest album wouldn't have qualified anyway. It makes sense that this was another marketing tactic that could paint BTS as revolutionary, but also screwing over other Asian acts that could qualify and win, since now they're "sale outs" and not as woke as their faves.
In my opinion, this decision was at least partly coming from Hybe wanting to put more resources in their newer groups like Katseye and Cortis. This album clearly didn’t do as well as they wanted and who knows how much longer the group will really be active. This way, they got a small publicity bounce (at least in the desi press) and fed the parasocial bond with their fandom.
You’re right though that this puts a target on any acts nominated for the award that their fandom sees as “competition” like SKZ. It could get very messy on X…
Nobody was assessing BTS's Koreaness. That was part of my point.