#but criminal is like the best kind of taemin music imo

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

Award shows are so fucking stupid. Isn’t that why we care less and less about them as time goes on? Whatever award show it is, I care about 1% of the nominees at best. I don’t listen to that many artists overall, but when I look at the nominees, I always recognize a few songs and think to myself ‘What a joke. I can name at least a few songs I think are better’. I also don’t understand how people are nominated. If it’s ‘popularity’ and ‘impact’, a lot of popular, influential artists are left out of consideration, and if it’s about ‘quality’, not only is quality subjective, but even artists who are both impactful and make music considered of quality are ignored (biggest example would be The Weeknd + The Grammys). Like, honestly, not to mention the xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, traditionalism, etc. of the music industry.

I don’t think deciding who gets nominated is easy, but it’s also clear there is a serious issue with the nomination process. It the nomination process were more transparent and coherent people wouldn’t fight over it all the time (not that the industry cares about integrity lol). I think when it comes to pop music, people have some sort of intuition that allows them to differentiate between ‘popular’ or ‘catchy’ and ‘quality’. Like, it’s all subjective, but usually we intuitively know what sounds fresh and unconventional, we recognize meaningful lyrics, we appreciate quality production, sincerity, artfulness, etc. This is why most of us would say someone like The Weeknd is more Grammy worthy than Justin Bieber, right? 

Anyway... I’m just ranting for no reason. I actually saw the Melon nominees and honestly felt like laughing. TXT won best MV for I Know I Love You, which is honestly not that great, when Frost was right there (the MV wasn’t released that long ago though); I love TXT, but was that MV all that great? Not really. The SOTY nominees were overall terrible. None of those songs felt unique, and none of them apart from Butter, will leave any kind of mark. Celebrity is one of IU’s most lackluster songs and won’t have the impact Good Day, for example, had. I’d say Next Level had real impact though. Only that one and Butter (from the list) had impact, and not just good sales or whatever. And, like, I can name a bunch of idol songs that were ‘musically’ superior. Drunk-Dazed was amazing; I don’t know if these could’ve been nominated but Don’t Call Me and I Can’t Stop Me were amazing imo; God’s Menu was revolutionary. Criminal, Idea, Advice.. Taemin had such a good year in 2020/beginning of 2021 and got no recognition for it. I wouldn’t expect any of those songs to win SOTY but they deserved a nomination maybe? Hey kid, Close your eyes is great too, and Nakka was very cool. I did like Happen, but it’s also very whatever. Butter isn’t a masterpiece, but it’s kinda obvious why it would be SOTY. Compared to the other nominated songs, it was big everywhere and not really worse ‘musically’. 

I dunno, overall, as an international fan who mostly only knows idol music, these nominations were a joke to me. Maybe the Korean public feels differently. If it’s all about sales, what is even the point? We know which songs performed better in that regard. (Ironic coming from someone defending Butter, I know.) Also, I’m gonna be that whiny person and say that I don’t care how great of a year IU had, I know BTS released 3 songs only, but they made it t the top of Billboard’s end of the year song charts (or whatever), hit number 1 on Billboard with all 3 songs, just performed 4 epic sold-out shows, had a collab with two very big names in pop, won AOTY at the AMAs (first Asian act to do so), spoke at the UN, were appointed Special Envoys by the President, were nominated for the second time at the Grammys, etc. As artists they had the biggest impact and broke down barriers in the US. Musically, it wasn’t their best year in terms of quantity or even quality, but BE was also included in MMA’s calculations, so like, BTS deserved that award. IU deserved it, I believe it, especially from the perspective of music released, but yeah, I still think BTS deserved it. The difference is that IU had an amazing year that was very standard for IU as one of the most beloved artists in Korea, while BTS had an amazing year and reached new heights internationally, It’s hard for me to be objective when it comes to BTS but they are one of the best in many categories. Just talking about performance, Dynamite wasn’t best performance worthy last year, but no one had a choreography, song and overall show stopping performance like Black Swan or ON. Very few groups sing live or have an outstanding dance line, or even interesting choreographies. Butter is not super elaborate, but the dance break is amazing and the choreography is elegant, appealing, cool, and fresh. I don’t care if saying BTS deserve “all” the awards makes me sound bitter or delusional or uncaring about other idols’ work or whatever. I only agree to BE losing album of the year, but not because it was worse than Lilac. Both albums were comparable - a bit generic, GP friendly, as they say, safe; there are pretty songs I prefer in Lilac, but BE was more interesting imo. Either way, AKMU’s Next Episode or Shinee’s Don’t Call Me were also comparable. If we’re talking about best album, we’re a year late, but D2 was miles better than any album nominated this year and Daewchita could’ve won SOTY and best MV going by quality and impact alone lol. (Joking, it couldn’t have won against BTS, but didn’t it deserve a nomination?)

TL;DR: One can never win with award shows... Either your faves win and you’re happy or they don’t and you complain, like me. Recognizing an artist’s work is important to them and to the fans, but at this point award shows are not it. 

#bts #mma 2021 #this is word vomit #might be considered toxic to some ppl #is it? #dunno #writing down these thoughts gets them out of my head and that's why I do it #text