Recognizing as One Genre vs Intent to Disrupt Other Awards... Debate Over AMA's New 'K-pop Category' Establishment

American Music Awards (AMA) "Separate Category for Favorite K-pop Artist"
Suspicions Arise Over Intent to Control Like Academy Award's 'Best Foreign Language Film'
Past Controversy Over 'Latin Artist'... Need Clear Criteria for K-pop First

Girl group BLACKPINK nominated for the 'Favorite K-pop Artist' award at the American Music Awards held on the 20th. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Culture Young Intern Reporter] The American Music Awards (AMA) will introduce a K-pop category for the first time this year. This is being noted as a first among the three major U.S. music awards, including the Grammy Awards and Billboard Music Awards (BBMA). However, opinions are divided, with some viewing it positively as K-pop being recognized as a genre in the U.S., while others see it as confining K-pop within a single category.

The '2022 American Music Awards (AMA),' scheduled to be held on the night of the 20th (local time) at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, recently announced the creation of a separate K-pop category called 'Favorite K-pop Artist.' The nominees include BTS, BLACKPINK, SEVENTEEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, and TWICE.

Various opinions have emerged regarding the establishment of the AMA K-pop award. Currently, AMA awards are determined entirely by public voting. Given K-pop's strong fandom voting power, the winners can be predicted. This differs from the Grammy Awards, which are voted on by music industry academy members, and the BBMA, which bases awards on Billboard chart performance and some public voting.

AMA has traditionally awarded popular genres in the U.S. such as pop, country, hip-hop, R&B, Latin, rock, gospel, and dance/electronic, and has also added new genres like Afrobeats (a West African rhythm-based genre). This decision is therefore interpreted as 'K-pop being recognized as a mainstream genre in the U.S.'

Additionally, thanks to the creation of this category, the number of K-pop groups nominated for the AMA for the first time this year, including BLACKPINK, TWICE, SEVENTEEN, and TOMORROW X TOGETHER, has significantly increased. Billboard, a U.S. music magazine, called it a "groundbreaking move for K-pop."

This is not the first time AMA has added a new category. In 1998, the 'Favorite Latin Artist' category was created as Latin pop began gaining popularity in the U.S. Since then, as its popularity increased, AMA expanded Latin pop-related categories to five by last year. This has led to positive expectations that K-pop's award categories may continue to expand.

However, some interpret it as a "special treatment deliberately made to curb K-pop's popularity." There are suspicions that "only K-pop groups strong in public voting are grouped into a separate category to compete among themselves, excluding them from major categories." In fact, among the newly established K-pop category nominees, only BTS is also listed in other major categories.

BLACKPINK topped the Billboard 200 main album chart and Spotify's global weekly chart with their new songs released last month, but AMA registered them only as nominees in the newly created K-pop category.

BTS nominated for the 'Favorite K-pop Artist' award at the American Music Awards held on the 20th. Photo by Yonhap News

Some have compared this to the Academy Awards. The Academy Awards, the largest U.S. film awards starting in 1929, began awarding foreign language films in 1947 under the name of consideration for non-English films. However, from 1956, it was changed to a proper 'Best Foreign Language Film' category with five nominees competing, like other categories.

Over time, this was criticized as a 'glass ceiling' that preemptively blocked competition for the main awards. The perception spread among Academy voters and the public that if foreign language films were already recognized with a category award for artistic achievement, there was no need to give them the main award as well.

The ambiguity of the 'K-pop genre' is also pointed out as a problem. Previously, the 'Latin Artist' category was also controversial due to its vague scope. Most winners were Latin American artists like Shakira and Bad Bunny, but Jennifer Lopez, a U.S. citizen with Puerto Rican parents, won twice. Similarly, concerns exist that without clear criteria on nationality and style, the same controversies could repeat with K-pop.

K-pop categories are also being introduced in domestic and international award shows. The '2022 Korean Popular Music Awards,' held in February, introduced a K-pop category for the first time this year, and the MTV VMA (MTV Video Music Awards), considered one of the major U.S. music awards alongside the big three, introduced the 'Best K-pop' category in 2019, with BTS nominated.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.