BTS Fans Are Calling Out The VMAs For These Major Snubs
The 2019 VMA nominations have officially been announced, and while the BTS ARMY is celebrating the fact that BTS received four nominations, they also feel that the guys deserved way more, and honestly, it's hard to disagree. I mean, BTS is the biggest boyband in the world right now and they're breaking countless records left and right. One of the most notable records they've broken this year was for their "Boy With Luv" music video, which reached 74.6 million views on YouTube in 24 hours — the biggest YouTube debut in history. With an achievement like that, fans think BTS' "Boy With Luv" music video deserved nominations in the main VMA categories, and that BTS themselves should have been nominated for Artist of the Year. The tweets about BTS' 2019 VMAs nomination snubs show fans think the creation of a brand new category for K-Pop is an effort to increase voter engagement without giving the boys a chance in major categories they deserve a spot in (and have a very big chance of winning, considering their powerful, hyper-engaged fans).
The four awards BTS is nominated for are Best Collaboration, Best K-Pop, Best Art Direction, and Best Choreography. As I said, fans are thankful that BTS finally received some VMA nominations, because last year, the guys didn't receive any, despite also breaking YouTube records for both their "Idol" and "Fake Love" music videos.
With that said, fans feel that instead of creating an entirely new category for K-Pop, the show should have nominated BTS for Video of the Year, asserting they've rightfully earned their spot against some of the biggest names in music like Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and Billie Eilish.
Fans have highlighted the fact that BTS has broken numerous music records just this year. In April, BTS' Map of the Soul: Persona album went No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, making it BTS' third album to reach the top spot on the Billboard 200 in less than a year. The achievement put BTS among the likes of the Beatles, who had three albums go No. 1 within 11 months, about the same time as BTS. In addition, BTS took the No. 1 spot on Nielsen Music's list of the Top 10 Physical Albums in the United States, with 312,000 units sold, surpassing the Jonas Brothers with Happiness Begins and Billie Eilish with When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?.
Both the Jonas Brothers and Billie Eilish were nominated for Video of the Year and Artist of the Year at this year's VMAs. BTS was left out of both categories despite beating them both in physical sales and music video streams with Map of the Soul: Persona and "Boy With Luv."
HERE'S HOW FANS REACTED TO BTS' VMA NOMINATION SNUBS:
To put things into perspective, UK-based boyband One Direction received a VMA nomination for Best Pop Video in 2012 for their "What Makes You Beautiful" music video. Considering BTS' immense successes both in album sales and music video performance (not to mention the VMAs' own acknowledgement of "Boy With Luv"'s artistic merit through its' nominations in "professional" categories like Best Choreography and Best Art Direction), it's hard to understand why they aren't represented in categories like Best Pop Video or Artist of the Year. BTS' VMA snubs also raise questions about how the MTV VMA nominations are chosen.
One Twitter user voiced the suspicion that the VMA nominations are heavily informed by the artists that are most likely to attend the award show, with fans getting the overwhelming sense that since BTS is unlikely to attend the show (they're on a reported 2-month hiatus) they were snubbed to make room in main categories for artists who are more likely to attend.
Whatever the reason, BTS's accomplishments speak for themselves and, no matter how you slice it, ARMYs have a point. It really does seem like they deserved way more recognition in the VMA nominations than they received this year.
