On July 29, all the members of BTS made an announcement via their personal Instagram accounts, where they declined to submit for the next year’s Grammy Awards.Shortly after, the CEO of Grammy Awards, Harvey Mason Jr., reacted to the situation. He said that he respects their decision.“I am saddened to hear that BTS has chosen not to participate in the Grammy Awards process this year, but as a music creator, I understand and respect their decision,” Mason wrote.As reported by Variety, the CEO went on to clarify that the new category was added to honor art coming out of Asia.“I do want to clarify something that seems to be getting lost in the conversation. The Asian Pop category was created to celebrate the depth, diversity and extraordinary growth of pop artistry coming out of Asia.”He continued:“The spirit of this new category is to shine a dedicated spotlight on these important artists. More categories mean more artists’ work is recognized. It’s never to divide, but to expand who is recognized by our 15,000 Grammy voters.” Mason added.Mason further added that besides the respective genre an artist can also submit in other general categories like Record of The Year, Song of the Year, and so on.“I also want to be very clear: submitting music in a genre category such as Asian Pop, or Jazz or Country does not exclude an artist from also submitting and being considered in the General Field categories, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year,” he continued.Lastly, he said that general fields are always open, irrespective of genre, and that both can even be pursued by an artist.BTS declined their submission for next year’s Grammy AwardsThe K-pop boy band dropped their comeback album, titled ARIRANG, in March this year. The group’s decision reportedly came in response to the new Asian Category created by Grammy Awards. The band members shared Instagram stories saying:“I hope music itself can be heard and loved rather than being distinguished by region or language.”The BTS members reportedly viewed their inclusion in the new Best Asian Pop Music Performance Category as divisive. The category is meant to represent the music from different Asian entertainment industries, including J-pop, C-pop, and K-pop. But the majority of songs from the septet’s ARIRANG are in English. The chart-topping track, SWIM, has entirely English lyrics.