How the Grammys Used Diversity For Viewership
photo courtesy of @recordingacademy Instagram
Did anyone else see Harry Styles dancing on the side of the stage during Billie Eilish’s performance at the Grammys? ‘Cuz we did! That’s how we felt too when our favorites like T Swift and Harry Styles won big.
It's rather nostalgic to be reminded of all the songs that we loved this year, and we’re ALWAYS on the edge of our seats when it comes to seeing who won what. Can you believe that Beyonce broke the barrier and won the most Grammys out of ANY PERSON EVER! Amazing? Yes. Surprising? Nah.
On top of Beyonce’s “Black Parade,” the Grammys featured a lot of music speaking out about racism. “What with Colors” by Black Pumas, “I Can’t Breathe” by H.E.R., and Black Like Me by Mickey Guyton were among them. The awards ceremony gave the impression that they were standing in support with minorities after having a history of snubbing certain stars (*cough cough* Megan Thee Stallion this year and Beyonce several years ago). But, in reality, the Grammy still has a lot of work to do.
A prime example is how the ceremony handled Bangtan Boys, or BTS, a South Korean boy band. BTS first started becoming popular in the US back in 2018 and their popularity has only continued to grow since. Considering their growth, it was only a matter of time until they got recognized by the Grammys -- the Grammys certainly did play up their nomination (remember all that extra commentary on K-pop?).
Yet when it came to BTS’ actual role in the show, out of all the awards they were only nominated for one minor one that wasn’t even shown in the actual program! The results for the best pop group were announced during the much less popular pre-show (spoiler alert, they didn’t win). Why make such a big fuss of having a group nominated if you’re barely going to even show them?
Welp, they used BTS only for the clout. Other artists had entire videos explaining how their songs rose to fame, yet when it came to K-pop they didn’t even show the award category? It’s just obvious how wrong this was.
While they did show one of BTS’ most popular songs, it also just doesn’t sit right with us to use their only all-English song. If you’re going to emphasize their nationality, you should at least show snippets of a song that uses actual Korean.
It’s beyond clear that the Grammys just used the group to lure their fans into watching and potentially expanding the show’s viewership. We call bullshit.