On July 23rd, good news came to many artists with the announcement of the nominees for the 2019 MTV Video and Music Awards. Both Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift racked up ten nominations, while Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X also received nominations for big awards of the night, such as "Best New Artists" and "Video of the Year". However, the announcement of a new category, "Best K-pop," and lack of top nominations for BTS left many fans upset and angry.

The introduction of this new category was a shock to many, especially since the recent release of BTS's album "Map of the Soul: Persona" has broken countless world records. In Korea, it has taken the record for best-selling album of all time, and in the US, it is the best-selling physical album in mid-2019.

It should be mentioned that BTS is nominated for four awards: "Best K-pop," "Best Collaboration," "Best Art Direction," and "Best Choreography"; however, none of these are a part of the headlining awards. Even if you're not a fan of BTS or K-pop, it is clear that BTS are achieving huge and quick success both in the US and Korea.

The nomination process for MTV's Video and Music awards is unclear, so it is difficult to understand if race or nationality is a factor in BTS's lack of recognition. Going along these lines, the new "Best K-pop" award is an interesting category to delve into for more insight.

The nominees include: BTS, BLACKPINK, EXO, Monsta X, NCT 127, and Tomorrow X Together. BTS and BLACKPINK have gained an enormous amount of popularity in the US for their songs, while EXO has been a skillful and steady leader in K-pop for a long time. The other remaining groups and their nominated songs contain a common thread: English versions.

NCT 127's "Regular", TXT's "Cat & Dog," and "Who Do U Love" by Monsta X with French Montana all have been released and even performed in English. All these groups have released various other tracks within the last year, but only their English songs are being acknowledged by MTV.

Both the Grammys and the Billboard Music Awards have already began to acknowledge the power of K-pop and various groups in the genre. Meanwhile, MTV created a new category for K-pop groups, separated them from American artists, failed to give them any of the top nominations, and picked half of the groups based on English versions of their Korean songs.

If you want to read more about this topic, I highly recommend Tamar Herman's article, "The New K-Pop Category At The VMAs Is Too Little Too Late". She specializes in international music and media, along with a focus on Asian pop culture, and offers a lot of insight on VMA's controversy.

The introduction of the "Best K-pop" category does signify a shift in diversity within the music industry, but MTV placed them into an entire new category and entered too late in the award game.