⟭⟬ᴮᴱAndy ⟬⟭ ⁷ 🐨🐹🐱🐿🐥🐯🐰 @Ivyrg2

My Friends' and Former Students' Reactions to BTS's Decision I have to admit, many of my male friends and former students, especially my old SNU buddies, have spent years busting my chops for being ARMY. To be fair, I probably deserve some of it. There aren't many middle-aged men who openly tell everyone they love BTS. Every chance I get, I talk about their music, their lyrics, or another charitable project they had supported. I even managed to convert a few of them into BTS fans, if not full-fledged ARMY. After BTS announced that they wouldn't submit their music to the Grammys, I've never received so many phone calls and Kakao messages about BTS in my life. The Kakao group chat with my former students exploded. The reactions ranged from, "그 형들 시발 멋있다 (Those hyungs are f***ing awesome)," to "They're choosing principles over awards," to "I've always liked the way they operate, but this makes me admire them." One wrote, "BTS is probably the only artist with guts that could pull something like this." Another simply said, "BTS가 BTS 했네." In other words, "BTS did what BTS would do." But my favorite message was this: "Now I finally understand why you like BTS so much." I smiled when I read that. My friends, much older and professionals, reacted a little differently. They were less emotional and more philosophical, but they arrived at the same conclusion. One friend who is a business journalist called me, and we ended up talking for quite a while. He told me that many of his fellow journalists had been surprised by BTS's decision. But the more they talked about it, the more they came to admire the group for willingly giving up the possibility of winning an award in order to stand by what they believed was right. And among the messages from my old SNU boarding house friends, one of them, a lawyer, said BTS's decision reminded her of what happened at Korea's oldest film awards, the Grand Bell Awards, in 2015. That year, the organizers announced that actors who did not attend the ceremony would not receive their awards, regardless of whether they had won. The policy caused such outrage that every nominee for Best Actor and Best Actress refused to attend and declined the awards altogether. It was one of the best examples of artists standing together against an institution they believed had become authoritarian and unfair. She told me that it takes real courage for entertainers to do something like that. The people with power don't usually appreciate being challenged. Actors may stop getting cast. Musicians may stop getting nominated. In BTS's case, who knows if they'll ever receive another Grammy nomination after this? But all seven members stood together anyway. She ended her message by saying that she was finally going to listen to the BTS albums I had been recommending to her for years. I also spent some time in an online community made up mostly of middle-aged professionals. The day the news broke, there must have been 50 posts about BTS. At least a dozen made it onto the HOT board, where the most-read discussions appear. One post alone was viewed nearly 15,000 times. I read almost every post and comment, and I could not find a single negative reaction toward BTS. People, nearly all of them not ARMY, all praised the members for standing by their principles. They admired their courage. Some joked that the Grammys had just created the world's biggest BTS promotional campaign. Some, well, let's just say the creativity of the cursing directed at the Grammys was quite impressive.. One comment made me laugh the most. A member wrote that not only was everyone at his company talking about BTS's decision, but even his parents, both in their seventies and about as far removed from pop music as you can get, had asked him what had happened. BTS had become the topic of conversation for everyone in Korea. Then, on Friday, the short-sighted music critic I wrote about on Wednesday appeared on Kim Ou-joon's program alongside two other music critics and argued that BTS probably wasn't going to win anyway, and that this was merely a power struggle between BTS and the Grammys. The community completely lost its mind. People tore the argument apart, and there was a lot of profanity involved. Some even said they had emailed the program asking not to invite those critics back because they had completely missed the point, and are incompetent. Some even lamented that if Kim Young-dae were still alive, he would have been the one sitting there, giving us the thoughtful, nuanced perspective that only he could. Judging by what I've seen here in Korea, and by the reactions I've been reading from around the world over the past few days, I believe BTS made exactly the right decision. By choosing principles over trophies, they earned something that can't be placed on a shelf: the respect of people who had never considered themselves fans.

BTS’ “Swim” remains the BIGGEST song debut on the Global Spotify Chart in 2026, with 14.6 MILLION streams.

keyboard_arrow_left Previous keyboard_arrow_right Next

#1 SWIM - 14.644M #2 Body to Body - 11.185M #3 Hooligan - 8.735M #4 FYA - 8.07M

chart data @chartdata

2 days ago

Ariana Grande's "petal" debut at #1 on the global Spotify chart with 7.823 million streams.

keyboard_arrow_left Previous keyboard_arrow_right Next

107 1K 14K 304K 195

Iconic freebie 🔥🔥 #ArtHasNoAliens

keyboard_arrow_left Previous keyboard_arrow_right Next

they tried to rig the game but you cant take influence

BTS ARE BIGGER THAN SCAMMY 🔥 #BTS_WORLDTOUR_ARIRANG #BTS_WORLDTOUR_ARIRANG_EASTRUTHERFORD

IS THIS ENOUGH “MEANINGFUL USE” OF AN ASIAN LANGUAGE FOR YOUR BULLSHIT AWARDS @RecordingAcad? IS THIS NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU??

[#오늘의방탄] 260801 BTS WORLD TOUR 'ARIRANG' IN EAST RUTHERFORD #방탄소년단 #BTS #BTS_WORLDTOUR_ARIRANG #BTS_WORLDTOUR_ARIRANG_NA #BTS_WORLDTOUR_ARIRANG_EASTRUTHERFORD

keyboard_arrow_left Previous keyboard_arrow_right Next

We win! 🎉 Toronto City Council approves BTS Boulevard and requests the Mayor proclaim Aug. 22–23 as BTS Weekend! Yonge Street will be temporarily co-named BTS Boulevard, and the Toronto sign will shine purple on concert nights. 💜 #maplearmy #boronto #BTS_ARIRANG_TOUR

“FUCK THE GRAMMY” APARECEU NO TELÃO DO SHOW DO BTS!

ALL THE BANNERS TONIGHT! 👏👏❤️‍🔥🙌 “FUC* THE GRAMMYS” “BTS BIGGER THAN THE INDUSTRY” “BTS ARE BIGGER THAN SCAMMY” “GRAMMY? NO THANK YOU” “WHO NEEDS A GRAMMY WHEN YOU HAVE ARMYS” #BTS_WORLDTOUR_ARIRANG #BTS_WORLDTOUR_ARIRANG_EASTRUTHERFORD

RT + REPLY ART HAS NO ALIENS @RecordingAcad #ArtHasNoAliens

We stand with BTS #WeStandWithBTS #ArtHasNoAliens

keyboard_arrow_left Previous keyboard_arrow_right Next

The rise of European artists did not trigger you to create new categories for them. The rise of Latin, African, and Asian artists triggered you to create multiple region/language categories. @RecordingAcad SPEAK UP #ArtHasNoAliens #Grammys #BTS #Culture

Lesson learned yet? .@RecordingAcad #ArtHasNoAliens

RT & REPLY MAKE IT TREND HIGHER ART HAS NO ALIENS @RecordingAcad #ArtHasNoAliens

ART HAS NO ALIENS @RecordingAcad #ArtHasNoAliens

🤷🏼‍♀️ I thought we all finally realized decades ago that Segregation/Separation does NOT EQUAL inclusion. ART HAS NO ALIENS @RecordingAcad #ArtHasNoAliens 💜

keyboard_arrow_left Previous keyboard_arrow_right Next

We hope music itself can be heard and loved rather than being distinguished by region or language. ART HAS NO ALIENS @RecordingAcad #ArtHasNoAliens #ArtHasNoAliens #ArtHasNoAliens

keyboard_arrow_left Previous keyboard_arrow_right Next

We stand with BTS. Art should know no boundaries. @RecordingAcad #ArtHasNoAliens

keyboard_arrow_left Previous keyboard_arrow_right Next