BTS Military Service and Grammy Nomination

Fearless Prediction:

• All seven members will enlist at the same time.
• They will get a Grammy nomination.

That is why the coming Grammy 2020 is important for BTS. Kim Namjoon, Kim Seokjin, Min Yoongi, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, Jeon Jungkook, and Jung Hoseok admits that a Grammy nomination is their dream.

They have formally submitted their application for nomination and has done some amount of significant but not extensive media campaign. What many don’t realize is that although this is not their last chance to get nominated, it may be their last chance to get nominated before their military service.

BTS just might pull a surprise by enlisting at the same time. It is not too far fetched. BTS has been open about the OT7 policy, meaning BTS will always promote as a group. Each member is freely able to come out with solo projects, the latest of which is Chicken Noodle Soup by Jhope. Big Hit does not hold back in their support for the solo activities but it seems that they do not plan to monetize any of it, let alone have any of the members promote solo.

With the strict OT7 policy, it wouldn’t make much sense to let Jin and Suga, the two oldest members, to serve in the military and the other five to be left behind. Weaker by two does not make OT7.

Big Hit seems to be aware that the strength of BTS comes with all 7 members together, and quite frankly, that’s true for all boybands and girlgroups. No single member has ever outshone the group.

This is their last chance to get nominated before the military service and make an appearance. Although whatever they release from hereon is qualified to be nominated in 2021, BTS won’t be able to attend the event during their service unless they ask for a permission to leave the country in the middle of their service. Such a request under such grounds is rarely approved.

I think they will get nominated. I do not think Boy With Luv or Map of the Soul: Personal is their best work but I do think it is good enough to be nominated. Since nominated are decided by voting and members of the Academy who can vote are encouraged to vote only in their area of expertise, the quality of the album may warrant a nomination.

As per Grammy, “more than 350 experts in various fields are held to ensure that entered recordings meet specific qualifications and have been placed in appropriate fields such as Rock, R&B, Jazz, Country, Gospel, New Age, Rap, Classical and Latin, among others. Nominating First-round ballots are sent to voting members in good dues standing. To help ensure the quality of the voting, members are directed to vote only in their areas of expertise; they may vote in up to 15 categories in the genre fields plus the four categories of the General Field (Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best New Artist.) Ballots are tabulated by the independent accounting firm of Deloitte. Special Nominating Committees In craft and other specialized categories, final nominations are determined by national nomination review committees comprised of voting members from all of The Academy's Chapter cities”

There are quite a number of boybands who have been nominated but only three boybands have won: The Beatles, Boyz II Men, and Milli Vanilli. Milli Vanilli returned their Oscar but that’s another story.

It is also important to note that The Beatles started out as a boyband, singing cover songs. George Harrison also called themselves the female version of Spice Girls. However, their latter works eclipsed their beginnings and has since proven they are more than just what other people would think of as a conventional boyband.

On the other hand, Boyz II Men has primarily been known as a vocal group rather than a boyband. While Milli Vanilli was never regarded as one at all. They were a rap duo but after admitting they weren’t the ones who sang in the album, many refuse to even given them a name.

N’Sync, Backstreet Boys, NKTOB, One Direction and other boybands were all snubbed by The Grammy. Girl groups have better luck. Destiny’s Child and TLC both won Grammy’s.

But perhaps, the elitism isn’t limited to Boybands but to pop in general, those that become massively popular, at least. Despacito took the world by storm but The Grammy was shielded because they didn’t win a single award.

Even with the massive popularity and sales success of Backstreetboys’ Millenium and a nomination for the Best New Artist six years prior, they didn’t win any.

Although many criticize for The Grammy for its elitism but the validity of the votes has never been questioned. As per Billboard, of the 21,000 Grammy members, 12,000 are eligible to vote as of 2019. Not each of the 12,000 will be voting on each category though as each member is recommended to vote on a category they may be considered an expert in.

Each member gets a portfolio to access the songs that are nominated. That’s where the difficulty lies. It’s not even about elitism. It’s just about being able to fully comprehend the songs. What are the chances the majority of those that will vote in the category that BTS submitted to will understand Hanggul?

If there is anything BTS has been good at, it’s breaking stereotypes, expectations, and barriers. Who would have thought a band speaking and singing songs in a language nowhere near the top 10 spoken languages in America will end up performing in American Music Awards? Who would have thought that a band who was once roaming LA giving away free tickets to their concert will be filling up the biggest stadiums all over the world?

If there is anyone who can change the course of history, it’s BTS. If there is anything I’ve learned from following their career it is never to underestimate their ability to get things done.