Why I’m Entering the Grammys’ New Asian Pop Category Despite the Backlash (Guest Column)

When I first heard that people were criticizing the Recording Academy’s new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category, my honest reaction was surprise.

I didn’t understand why people were upset.

From where I stood, I saw an organization trying to recognize music, languages and cultures that have historically received less attention within the American music industry.

Why wouldn’t we welcome that? Related Recording Academy Discussing Future of New Asian Pop Category Phoebe Bridgers, KATSEYE Bag First No.

1s In Australia 'We Know What We Want': With a New Recording Studio and Label Deal, DMA'S Are Just Getting Started Then I started reading more about the concerns, and I began to understand where some Asian artists and fans were coming from.

If you have spent years fighting to have Asian artists recognized simply as pop artists, the creation of a separate category can raise an uncomfortable question: Is this opening another door for us, or building another room that people expect us to stay inside? The language requirement raises questions of its own.

An artist can be Asian and create music that does not prominently use an Asian language.

Does that make the music less Asian? Should language define genre or identity? Those are legitimate questions, and I still decided to enter.

That choice is not because I think every detail of the new category is perfect.

I don’t.

I think the Recording Academy could have benefited from hearing from a wider group of Asian and non-Asian musicians while developing the rules and explaining the intention behind them. (I’m glad the Academy is doing that now .) I’m entering because I see another possibility in this category, one that I don’t want us to lose sight of while debating its shortcomings: discovery.

As a Recording Academy voting member, I imagine listening to the entries and hearing artists from Japan, China, Korea and other parts of Asia whom I have never encountered before.

I might discover a kind of J-pop I never knew existed or hear an independent Mandarin artist who otherwise may never have crossed my path.

Even within K-pop, there are many different musical approaches that American listeners rarely encounter because our image of an entire country’s music can become defined by the few artists who achieve enormous global fame.