BTS: The Scammys Have Never Been Important

Hi! It’s Annie!

So yesterday was another massive disappointment to many many people. I know the boys were again disappointed by last night’s events, and that’s what matters most to me. But, considering the likes of ‘Queen’ (yes, that ‘Queen’, the classic rock band headed by Freddie Mercury), never received a Grammy, I think it stands to say that the Scammys have always been irrelevant. And I personally feel that they, and all award shows like it, only prove their irrelevance in every passing year. I mean, just look at viewership this year. Though it wasn’t lower than last year’s record low viewership rating, it was only barely better. And it was also still lower than even the Oscars, which also had insufferably bad ratings this year. BTS is the most popular group in the world, so why is anyone judging their success based off an obviously dying tradition? I’m going to go fully into last night’s performance and all the BTS shenanigans, but I’m also going to go into why BTS winning or losing definitely does not matter. Let’s get into it!

BTS:

Last night was an amazing night for BTS! And I’m sure everyone could tell before they even got there. For those of you who don’t already know, Las Vegas (where the Scammys were held) has been transformed into a BTS carnival. There are BTS pop ups everywhere, the Bellagio Fountains are going to BTS songs, and there are posters and billboards as far as the eye can see. This is because their concert stint there is soon to start. (I have an announcement about that at the end.) In fact, the place the Scammys took place in this year is none other than the theatre being used for live-streaming the concert to those who couldn’t get tickets. One didn’t even need to step outside to know who was the boss. BTS showed up looking amazing. Namjoon’s hair is grey and I may or may not have screamed because I think that’s my favorite of his hair colors. Jimin also cut his hair! They were shown a couple times throughout the awards, including being shown massive respect by the host, Trevor Noah. He did lose a bit of his good intentions by mentioning that Namjoon had learned English from ‘Friends’ for the bazillionth time, but Namjoon seemed to brush it off. C’mon guys, we all know that Namjoon can speak English. America is the stupid country for not attempting to be multilingual. Can we move on? They were also asked plenty of collaboration questions on the red carpet, again belittling their existence from another country by suggesting that they need to collaborate with someone American. But, I digress. Especially with their performance slot and the Trevor Noah appreciation, this is far and away the most respect they’ve received attending the Scammys. It still wasn’t great and it still doesn’t inspire me to give them any more views. Especially considering they saved their award for almost last, only to not give them anything. Very obviously attempting to get fan viewership. It was even more obvious than last year. It is very clear who needs who.

BTS Performance:

Namjoon said that we would be seeing something entirely new on the red carpet, and that is exactly what we got. Though the song wasn’t new, it was still ‘Butter’, everything else about the performance was completely new. The entire thing was done in a secret agent style that I could watch all day. Jin is still wearing a cast from having shattered his finger, so he took the hacker position. We then saw Jungkook descend onto the stage and Taehyung, who was now virally flirting with Olivia Rodrigo, throw a card to Jungkook. (No, he didn’t catch the exact card Tae threw.) They then went into a fully fledged secret agent version of ‘Butter’, with Jin joining in a few times. This included a full jazzy dance break where they used this really cool looking jacket choreography and another dance break while avoiding lasers. This has to be one of my favorite performances they’ve ever done and it undeniably stole the entire show. BTS has an amazing talent of making each of their performances both uniquely interesting and immersive feeling. It feels like you’re watching a fully fledged production, even when they only perform one song.

Award Shows:

People seem to forget that award shows have nothing to do with talent, and never will. They have to do mostly with politics within the industry. I’ve said this before, but winning an award at any of these award shows says nothing about the talent of an artist. It does, however, say everything about how much that artist’s company bribed the old white men who are a part of the academies. In fact, most of the time voting is based off of imaginary standards that these old white men enforce. In movies, there’s even an entire genre of movies dedicated to pleasing the rich members of the academy. If you’re wondering why BTS didn’t win, the answer is simple. They aren’t white or American. The academy prefers you to be both, but they would much rather have an American win than someone from another country. It’s just another example of how American industries still refuse to recognize media from other countries. And if you think it’s messed up, the best thing to do is stop watching. It’s clear to any experts that all of these award shows probably won’t last much longer. The best thing we can do is prove that we’re not going to watch these award shows anymore. And this goes for any awards show, whether it’s the Scammys, the Oscars, or even the Tonys. No artist should have their success measured by how many awards they get. And BTS is the biggest example of this that the music industry has probably ever gotten. The proof was all around Vegas. The fact that a group powerful enough to take over Las Vegas received no award, is proof enough how irrelevant the award is. So why do people from other countries specifically still revere these shows? Because media in America is revered and America has always been unwilling to identify anyone from any other country as successful, especially not white populated countries. The more we all start to consume media from other countries, the more we’ll prove that these awards are insignificant. I personally believe BTS will be an important step in the Scammys finally dying out.

Anyways, just listen to BTS on this. Don’t feel too sad about them not getting an award. That award becomes more and more meaningless every year. And hopefully our boys will help these awards die out. I wish for that more that I wish for them getting one. For me, the academy just feels like another obstacle between the industry now and achieving equality in the music industry. But that aside, the most important BTS event this week was never the Scammys. Of course, it’s their concert that begins this weekend! Which I am happy to say my sister and I will actually be attending! We got surprised with tickets this weekend! I’m so excited! I hope that we’ll see some of you there! I still have no idea how I’m going to survive seeing Namjoon’s grey hair in real life.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie