Can BTS members beat out Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga to win a Grammy? They’re breaking barriers as the first K-pop group to be nominated with Dynamite, say experts

Nov 27 , 2020

BTS has been nominated for the 63rd Grammy Awards in the best pop duo/group performance category – a first for the genre and cause of celebration for the group’s famous Army fan base. Photo: AP

Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa and more will compete for best pop/duo performance in 2021 – with BTS’ V, Jungkook, Jimin et al right alongside them, showing that K-pop is here to stay in the US

Korean boy band BTS’ Grammy nomination for best pop duo/group performance on Tuesday confirms that the K-pop sensation has become part of the mainstream US pop music market, giving other K-pop groups the signal that they might be able to make it, too.

Some have also taken the nomination as a sign that the Grammys has become more inclusive.

BTS looking sharp in monochrome at the BE Global Press Conference. Photo: Big Hit Entertainment

“The nomination implies that BTS is now considered a regular part of the US pop music scene, not just a small triumph that will be short-lived”, said Jung Min-jae, a pop music critic.

BTS may be the first Korean group to be nominated for a Grammy, but they have long been deserving of the nomination, according to Jung.

“I assume that the Grammys thought that the existence and influence of BTS can no longer be ignored after it topped the Billboard's Hot 100 with its first English song Dynamite, along with its other outstanding activities. It is also meaningful that BTS was named alone as a group while other nominees were listed for collaborations”, he added.

“It’s not just BTS, no other Asian artists have been given or even nominated for awards in popular genres”, music critic Kim Young-dae observed during a TBS Radio interview this week. “They’re represented in minor, less-influential genres like classical or jazz music … K-pop and other non-American, non-Western music has largely been categorised as ‘world music’ so far.”

BTS before their performance at the 2020 American Music Awards in Los Angeles. Photo: Agence France-Presse/courtesy of ABC

“The Grammys started to change its direction recently, by including more people of colour and more women as voting Academy members. BTS and Bang Si-hyuk, CEO of Big Hit Entertainment and producer of BTS, became voters as well,” Lim Jin-mo, a popular music critic, was quoted as saying by Yonhap News TV.

“It is also important that K-pop has been recognised in the US mainstream market. Of course, the focus is on BTS now, but the nomination will pave the way for other K-pop acts and songs”, Lim added.