TIME is reporting that the Recording Academy announced a new category, Best Asian Pop Music Performance, for the 2027 Grammy Awards, prompting the K-pop group BTS to say it would not submit its music for consideration. It said the decision sparked debate among K-pop fans worldwide, some of whom feared the category would sideline Asian artists by placing them in a separate lane while reducing their chances in the Grammys' General Field awards.
TIME said Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. clarified that the Asian Pop category was created to celebrate the depth, diversity, and extraordinary growth of pop artistry coming out of Asia, and that submitting music in a genre category would not exclude an artist from also being considered for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year.
In a Weekend Essay, TIME said Korean ethnomusicologist Stephanie Choi, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and president of the Association for Korean Music Research, examines whether such a category is necessary, whether it risks creating a new form of segregation, or whether it can provide greater visibility for Asian artists in American mainstream media. It said Choi describes the cultural hierarchy between Western and Korean popular music as shaped by South Korea's postwar political and military relationship with the United States.
Separately, TIME is reporting that President Donald Trump banned news outlets from the White House, and it is examining whether that action is legal. It said the newsletter outlines what to know about the legal fight.