Let’s talk about the Grammys, their new ‘Oriental music’ category and other segregated categories for the ‘ethnics’.

Y’all saw the headline. And, oooof. This is an absolute mess.

So, the Grammys announced 5 new categories for the 2027 Grammys. One of which is the Best Asian Pop Music Performance category. And the official description from the Grammys themselves is as follows:

This Category recognizes artistic excellence in Asian pop music performances originating from or widely recognized within Asian markets, including but not limited to K-pop, J-pop and C-pop, with meaningful use of one or more Asian languages. Awards are presented to the performing artist(s).

The Grammys really thought they did something. And they did. That thing being some absolute BS.

This stinks of the racial segregation shit that the music industry has continually pulled with Black artists. Having Urban radio stations. Urban divisions at record labels. R&B basically being the ‘Blacks’ category that Black acts get thrown into regardless of the genre of their music. And now we’re seeing the same thing happen to ‘Asian’ music.

The fact that the category is just ‘Asian’ to refer to Korean, Japanese and Chinese music is crazy — as though Asia isn’t made up of 48 countries which includes big-ass India. The Grammys did say that the category is ‘not limited to K-pop, J-pop and C-pop’, but it’s kinda clear this is an East Asian music category. Although in defence (but not really) of the Grammys, they probably originally called this the ‘Oriental’ music category, until the HR team said ‘Let’s not do that’.

Throwing K-pop, J-pop and C-pop into an Asian music category is so obnoxiously lazy. It’s faux inclusivity. Because what this category actually is, is a K-pop category. But calling it ‘Asian’ makes it sound more inclusive and ‘worldly’. But, watch. Come the 2027 Grammys, the category will just be full of K-pop acts and then Fujii Kaze and Kenshi Yonezu.

BTS on the red carpet of the 64th Annual Grammy Awards | Getty

With the Korean wave finally hitting American shores, we’ve seen how K-pop acts (or former K-pop acts) have shifted. When K-pop acts break America, they kinda stop being K-pop, because they just release songs and albums in English — written and produced by American writers and producers, which sounds like the regular shit you hear on American radio. And yet, these acts, songs and albums are still being categorised as K-pop because they are from acts who started out as K-pop, when they should be in pop categories. K-pop IS a genre, with a sound and a whole vibe and aesthetic. Yes, all of these things are pulled from existing sounds and aesthetics. But the way in which it’s packaged is what makes it K-pop. K-pop is not just pop music by Koreans. The same way that R&B is not just anything sung by Black people.

It’s almost like the Grammys know that there is a high likelihood that if BTS or Blackpink wound up in the regular-degular Best Pop categories that they would win over some RGB (255, 255, 255) act. And trust that if this did happen, that we would then get a Best Asian English Language Pop Music Performance category or some shit.

BTS kicked up a fuss — boycotting the Grammys by withdrawing their submissions, stating: “We hope music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided into region or language.” And I don’t blame them.

All of this comes off the back of two other racially segregated categories. Because the Grammys have more than enough racism to go around for everybody.

Beyoncé winning Best Country Album at the 67th Grammy Awards | Paramount

There is now a Best Traditional Country Album category, following Beyoncé winning country album of the year in 2025 for Cowboy Carter. Now, this one pisses me off, because it’s all just games and the Grammys playing in Beyoncé’s face YET again.

I personally don’t think Cowboy Carter should have won best Country album, because it is absolutely not a country album — Beyoncé even said as such herself. But the Grammys let her win it, just so they could be seen to be on the right side of music history and not be seen to be proving Beyoncé right about gatekeeping Black people out of country music. But allowing her to win Best Country Album made Beyoncé a target of racist white country folk AGAIN, who felt that she should not have won. And the annoying thing is, I agree with them. Albeit it for different reasons. But I do agree that Cowboy Carter should not have won. And then the Grammys turned their lil’ gold gramophone Mario Kart around and proved Beyoncé’s point, by creating a Best Traditional Country Album category, so an album like Cowboy Carter cannot win in that category again — when they never should have let it in a country category in the first place. They simply could have kept the country category as it was and always has been, but been stricter about what albums can be eligible. The Grammys created this problem for themselves by allowing Cowboy Carter in the category, when it’s neither a traditional or contemporary country album. Fans can argue this point all they want, but Cowboy Carter is NOT a country album. It is not. But it did what it needed to, because look at the mess it caused and uncovered. Beyoncé was right the whole damn time.

Bad Bunny winning Album of the Year at the 67th Grammy Awards | Paramount

There will also be a new Best Latin Song category, which is a songwriters award.

This Category recognizes the achievement of songwriters for newly written Latin songs. Eligible works must be predominantly in the Spanish language (at least 51% of the lyrics) and released during the current eligibility year. Awards are presented to the songwriter(s) only, not to the performing artist(s), unless they are also credited as songwriter(s).

Recordings may represent any Latin genre, including, but not limited to, Latin Pop, Música Mexicana, Música Urbana, Tropical Latin, Latin Rock/Alternative, provided they meet the language and release requirements.

Now, I am all for additional awards for songwriters. But this once again feels like a case of partitioning off music by non-RGB (255, 255, 255) folk into another category. Because if somebody like Bad Bunny puts out a song and it’s a huge hit which impacts pop radio, then should it not be in the main pop categories? But the problem is that if Bad Bunny ends up in a category with folk who are a few hexadecimal shades lighter, then either he never wins against them or always does. And I wouldn’t put it past the Grammys that Bad Bunny winning Album of the Year is what prompted the creation of a Best Latin Song category.


The Grammys will spin the Best Asian Pop Music Performance, Best Traditional Country Album and Best Latin Song categories as responding to a growing popularity of these styles of music. And the Recording Academy will trot out their lightskin CEO to do all of the press, in a bid to show ‘SEE. IT’S NOT ABOUT RACE, BECAUSE OUR CEO IS BLACK.’ But they ain’t fooling me.

“Weird Al” Yankovic throws them shits in the bin | “Weird Al” Yankovic

The Grammys cannot keep splintering off categories. On one hand it means that more people have chances to win, especially at a time when it feels like certain artists have a monopoly on the charts, streaming and even the Grammys [Looks over at Taylor Swift]. But it also speaks to how broken the entire Grammys establishment is, right down to how the board decides on who should win. Most of the board is made up of old RGB (255, 255, 255) people who have biases and in a lot of cases do not even listen to the music in the categories they’re voting for. The Grammys is an unfortunate reflection of where the music industry is at right now, as opposed to what it should be or what it was. It’s hardly a surprise. The entire music industry has bent to trends and willingly thrown away traditions and institutions, which is why the music industry is fucked. And just on the most basic level, there are already way too many categories for the Grammys to keep adding more. The fundamental problem is not that there are not enough categories. The problem is the way acts are being sorted into these categories and the Grammys obsession with keeping non RGB (255, 255, 255) artists in boxes, in addition to how doo-doo the voting system is.

The Grammys keep on having their cake and eating it too — wanting to capitalise on the virality and commercial success of non RGB (255, 255, 255) acts, whilst also trying to partition them off into categories when they get a bit too big. And it’s annoying. But they will keep getting away with it because they are the Grammys. And as much as fans and artists will claim that they don’t matter, they know that to some degree, they do.