The term “K-pop snub” has emerged in response to the 66th Grammy Awards held on Feb. 4 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, United States, as no K-pop artist was nominated across the 94 award categories this year.
Since its inception in May 1959, the Grammy Awards have been globally recognized as an authority in popular music, primarily assessing performances based on achievements within the U.S. music industry. Despite a hiatus in group activities from K-pop giants like BTS and Blackpink last year, K-pop continued to make significant strides in the U.S. market. BTS members Jimin, with the track “Like Crazy,” and Jungkook, with “Seven,” both secured the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as solo artists. Among the top 10 rankings for CD album sales in the U.S., seven were K-pop albums, including Stray Kids in second and fourth, Tomorrow X Together (TXT) in third, NewJeans in fifth, TWICE in sixth, SEVENTEEN in seventh, and Jungkook in 10th. The absence of K-pop from this year’s Grammy nominations prompted surprise even among U.S. media outlets like the Associated Press and USA Today.
Experts suggest that this outcome reflects the Grammys’ unique evaluation criteria rather than bias against a specific genre. Among the three major music awards ceremonies in the U.S., the American Music Awards (AMA) employs a public voting system, while the Billboard Music Awards (BBMA) incorporates public voting along with Billboard charts and social media performance metrics. Both ceremonies introduced new K-pop categories last year, with many Korean groups nominated for awards. However, the Grammys continue to insist on voting by members of the Recording Academy, primarily composed of U.S. music industry professionals, without creating a separate category for K-pop. “Even previous white boy bands like Backstreet Boys and One Direction were often overlooked at the Grammy Awards,” said Hwang Sun-up, a pop music critic. “The awards show emphasizes everyday popular impact and musical completeness rather than the fandom popularity that is a strength of K-pop.”
Some argue that adding “Non-Classical Songwriter of the Year” and “Non-Classical Producer of the Year” categories to this year’s Grammys will create an unfavorable barrier to entry for K-pop. If these changes indicate a strict separation between performers and the team of composers and producers, K-pop artists, who often rely on a large team of composers, will inevitably have fewer opportunities to be nominated. “The Grammys have traditionally emphasized the completeness of an album. K-pop albums may have high sales, but their total playback time is short to match social media promotions, and they rarely take the form of full-length albums. Moreover, the performance of hit songs does not necessarily correlate with album sales,” critic Lim Jin-mo said. “We must contemplate the current state of K-pop, characterized by ‘high record sales’ but fewer ‘thoroughly listened-to records.’”
