Business

Is the Grammys Canceling Its New Asian Pop Category After Backlash? Here’s What’s True This Week So Far

Published

1 hour ago

7 August 2026

Despite growing public backlash following BTS’s decision to boycott next year’s Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy has given no indication it plans to cancel or eliminate its new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category. The category remains in place, submissions are proceeding on schedule, and the Academy’s leadership has publicly defended the decision rather than walking it back.

The controversy traces back to July 29, when all seven members of BTS announced through matching Instagram posts that they would not submit music for consideration at the 69th Grammy Awards, set for Feb. 7, 2027. The group wrote that they hoped their music could be “heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language,” a statement widely interpreted as a direct response to the new category, which the Recording Academy had introduced a month earlier alongside four other additions.

What the New Category Actually Does

The Best Asian Pop Music Performance award, according to the Recording Academy, is intended to recognize artistic excellence in Asian pop music performances originating from or widely recognized within Asian markets, including but not limited to K-pop, J-pop and C-pop, with a requirement of meaningful use of one or more Asian languages. Critics have argued the category functions less as recognition than as a structural barrier, one that risks steering K-pop and other non-English Asian pop acts away from the ceremony’s marquee general-field categories, such as Album of the Year, rather than expanding their access to those honors.

The Academy’s Response So Far

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. addressed BTS’s withdrawal directly in a statement shared with multiple outlets, saying he was “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.” Rather than signaling any reconsideration of the category itself, Mason used the same statement to defend its creation, saying the Asian Pop category “was created to celebrate the depth, diversity and extraordinary growth of pop artistry coming out of Asia,” and adding that “more categories mean more artists’ work is recognized.”

Mason has also pushed back specifically on the idea that the new category limits artists’ opportunities elsewhere, stating that submitting music in a genre category, whether Asian Pop, jazz or country, does not exclude an artist from also being considered in the ceremony’s General Field, which includes Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year.

Following the wave of criticism that followed BTS’s announcement, Mason issued an additional statement saying the Recording Academy will “continue to listen to the global music community, and work to honor and celebrate all the artists whose music moves the world.” While that comment acknowledges the ongoing conversation around the category, it stops well short of announcing any plan to cancel, rename or restructure the award, and the Academy has taken no formal action to remove it from the 69th Grammy Awards lineup.

Submissions Are Continuing on Schedule

Practically speaking, the category remains fully operational. The eligibility window for Best Asian Pop Music Performance runs through Aug. 28, and K-pop labels across the industry have continued weighing whether to submit music for the award despite the controversy surrounding its creation. According to reporting on the submission process, artists including Seventeen, Twice, Stray Kids, Ateez, Riize, Tomorrow X Together, aespa, IVE and Le Sserafim submitted work for Grammy consideration during the prior award cycle, and industry observers expect competition for the new category to proceed with nominees expected to be announced in mid-November, well ahead of the February ceremony.

Why Few Other Artists Have Joined the Boycott

Despite the intensity of the online backlash, relatively few other prominent artists have followed BTS in withdrawing from Grammy consideration. Experts have suggested this reflects BTS’s unusual position within the music industry rather than broad consensus that a boycott is the right response. Hye Jin Lee, a University of Southern California professor who studies Korean pop culture, said BTS’s decision signals that the group has reached a point in its career where it no longer feels the need to seek validation from Western institutions, a stance not every K-pop act can afford to take given the continued commercial value many artists still place on Grammy recognition and exposure.

A Debate Over the Term ‘Asian Pop’ Itself

Beyond the question of exclusion, some academics have raised a separate critique focused on the category’s framing. Writing for The Conversation, researcher Dorothy Finan noted that the new award’s wording appears to privilege idol-group pop production, the model most associated with K-pop, while giving comparatively little consideration to other forms of Asian pop music, including Japanese singer-songwriters like Kenshi Yonezu, who have little connection to idol-group production, or the diverse regional and linguistic subgenres that make up C-pop across Greater China. That critique suggests the category’s problems extend beyond simply whether it limits access to general-field awards, raising broader questions about who was consulted in shaping its definition in the first place.

A Familiar Pattern Across Award Shows

The debate over Best Asian Pop Music Performance echoes a longer-running critique from Black artists, some of whom have accused the Grammys of similarly pigeonholing them into specific genre categories in ways that limit their path to the ceremony’s most prestigious general-field honors. That parallel has featured prominently in commentary surrounding the BTS controversy, with critics arguing the Recording Academy is repeating a pattern of genre-based categorization that has drawn criticism for years, rather than addressing the underlying structural concerns those earlier critiques raised.

With the Aug. 28 submission deadline still weeks away and nominees not expected until mid-November, the Recording Academy has ample opportunity to make further statements or adjustments before the 69th Grammy Awards air on Feb. 7, 2027. Based on everything said publicly so far, however, there is no indication the category is being canceled, and the Academy’s leadership has consistently defended its creation even while acknowledging the controversy it has generated. Barring an unexpected reversal, Best Asian Pop Music Performance appears set to move forward as planned, with its inaugural winner determined by voting members later this year regardless of BTS’s absence from the pool of eligible nominees.

Business

Western Digital Stock Tanks. An Earnings Beat Isn’t Enough These Days.

Published

2 minutes ago

8 August 2026

NewsAdmin

Western Digital Stock Tanks. An Earnings Beat Isn’t Enough These Days.

Business

Bock Stock: Block Earnings Top Views. Guidance Underwhelms.

Published

9 minutes ago

8 August 2026

NewsAdmin

Bock Stock: Block Earnings Top Views. Guidance Underwhelms.

Square-parent Block (XYZ) reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that topped consensus estimates while key financial metrics came in slightly above Wall Street targets. Profit guidance met expectations. Block stock fell on the news Thursday. Released after the market close on Wednesday, Square earnings for the period ended June 30 were $1.02 per share on an adjusted basis, up 64% from…

Business

Coca-Cola blocks ‘Jesus is Lord’ but permits ‘Pedophile Pride’ on custom cans

Published

16 minutes ago

8 August 2026

NewsAdmin

Coca-Cola blocks 'Jesus is Lord' but permits 'Pedophile Pride' on custom cans

The ‘Barron’s Roundtable’ panel discusses Coca-Cola’s soaring stock amid Pepsi’s plunge and what the future holds.

After an uproar of social media backlash over what custom messages Coca-Cola permits on its personalized cans, a Fox News Digital investigation into the platform’s moderation rules reveals an inconsistent system.

Testing various words and phrases in the 18-character-or-less requirement, the Coke can customization blocks mainstream religious phrases like “Jesus is Lord” and political slogans like “Make America Great,” while permitting left-wing activism, right-wing group names and even terms associated with child exploitation.

Religious and faith-based expressions seemed to face strict algorithmic suppression compared to secular or alternative viewpoints. Mainstream affirmations like “Jesus is Lord” and “Allah is Lord” are blocked, while anti-theist and secular phrases like “God is Dead” and “Atheist Pride,” alongside religious greetings like “Shalom” and “Buddha Bless,” are allowed.

This message popped up for rejected phrase or words: “The name or phrase you’ve submitted is not permitted. Names and phrases may not be permitted if they belong to a business, organization, celebrity, public figure, school, team or other trademark, are religious or political in nature, or could be considered inappropriate or unsuitable for other reasons.”

Osaic Chief Market Strategist Phil Blancato analyzes the latest trends from CES 2026, focusing on AI’s impact on Amazon’s future and more on ‘Making Money.’

COCA-COLA TAKES ITS FIGHT WITH THE IRS TO FEDERAL APPEALS COURT WITH $20B ON THE LINE

Patriotic or right-leaning slogans like “Make America Great,” along with any specific political leader names and all racial or identity pride phrases (“White Pride,” “Black Pride,” “Black Lives Matter”), are not permitted on personalized Coke cans. However, left-wing political slogans like “Defund the Police” and controversial political groups like the far-right “Proud Boys” are acceptable.

A Fox News Digital investigation found free speech discrepancies on Coca-Cola’s custom can tool. (Getty Images)

Another political disparity appeared when Fox News Digital found that “Stand with Israel” is allowed, while “Free Palestine” is blocked, highlighting arbitrary geopolitical enforcement.

Though benign religious and political terms are flagged, extreme and harmful phrases like “Pedophile Pride” and “MAP Pride” (Minor-Attracted Person) are permitted by the filter, as of Friday afternoon.

Additionally, basic text loophole tactics — like adding spaces (“P e d o p h i l e”) or numbers (“Wh1t3 Pr1d3”) — bypassed the system’s security rules.

While the online customization tool generates real-time digital previews, Coca-Cola’s site terms state that submitted text may require additional review before an order is physically printed and shipped.

“We created the Share A Coke personalization tool for Coca-Cola fans to celebrate with one another and make connections by creating bottles and cans with special names or phrases on them,” a Coca-Cola spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “We are aware of a technical issue affecting the personalization preview tool and are working to address it.”

“While we review and take corrective action, we have disabled the preview feature and paused new personalized product orders after becoming aware that it has been used to generate content previews using restricted terms that do not align with our guidelines,” the spokesperson continued. “All personalization orders are subject to moderation review after submission, and we have safeguards in place to prevent the approval and production of cans and bottles featuring religious, political, trademarked, inappropriate, or otherwise restricted terms and phrases. We will continue to enhance this tool based on consumer feedback.”

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO James Quincey has the latest on the updated recipe on ‘The Claman Countdown.’

This is not the first time Coca-Cola’s automated customization filters have drawn public scrutiny. Previous iterations of the brand’s online customization engine faced similar criticism in 2021 over inconsistent word blocks regarding political, religious and social movement terms.

READ MORE FROM FOX BUSINESS

Business

Canada Services PMI Improves in July Yet Remains in Contraction Territory

Published

23 minutes ago

8 August 2026

NewsAdmin

Canada Services PMI Improves in July Yet Remains in Contraction Territory

Activity in Canada’s services industry remained subdued last month as price pressures intensified and output and sales declines, data released Thursday showed.

The S&P Global Canada services purchasing managers index climbed to 49.1 in July. That marked an improvement from June’s 47.1 but still below the 50 threshold separating contraction from expansion.

Business

Stock Market Leadership Just Flipped. Now the Nasdaq Is on Top.

Published

29 minutes ago

8 August 2026

NewsAdmin

NewsAdmin

Meghan Markle won a ruling in February that Associated Newspapers had breached her privacy

Paramount+ subscribers began reporting streaming problems Friday morning, with outage-tracking service Downdetector flagging a spike in user complaints starting around 10:40 a.m. Eastern time, though independent monitoring services showed a mixed picture of the platform’s actual status as the day progressed.

Downdetector posted about the reported disruption on its X account shortly after complaints began climbing, asking affected users how the issue was impacting them and directing them to its website for further details. Paramount has not issued a public statement addressing the specific cause of the reported problems as of Friday afternoon.

What the Monitoring Data Shows

The picture painted by different outage-tracking services has not been entirely consistent throughout the day. StatusGator, a service that tracks Paramount+’s service health by analyzing issue reports, page visits and other signals, indicated the platform might be experiencing or might have recently experienced an outage, even though the company itself had not officially acknowledged any issue as of the service’s most recent check Friday afternoon.

By contrast, UptimeRobot, which conducts automated technical checks of Paramount+’s website infrastructure, reported that its most recent test, run at roughly 3:13 p.m. Eastern time Friday, did not detect any unusual response times or error codes, suggesting that whatever issue prompted the earlier wave of user reports may have already been resolved, or that it was affecting only a subset of users or specific features rather than the platform as a whole.

That kind of discrepancy between different monitoring approaches is not unusual during smaller-scale or intermittent outages. Automated technical checks, which test whether a website or app responds correctly from various global locations, can sometimes fail to detect problems that are limited to specific regions, particular app versions, certain devices, or individual features such as live sports streaming or account sign-in systems, even while a meaningful number of real users continue experiencing genuine disruptions.

What Users Have Reported

Based on patterns commonly logged during past Paramount+ service disruptions, user complaints during outage periods have typically included issues such as apps failing to load, error messages indicating technical problems, difficulty signing into accounts, slow performance, and streams stopping unexpectedly in the middle of playback. One tracking service, IsDown, noted that Paramount+ has experienced three separate incidents over the trailing 90-day period prior to Friday, with those incidents lasting a median of roughly 47 minutes each, suggesting that when disruptions do occur on the platform, they have generally tended to be relatively short-lived.

How to Check if the Problem Is Widespread

For users uncertain whether their own streaming trouble reflects a broader platform issue or a more localized problem, outage-tracking services generally recommend a few basic troubleshooting steps before concluding that Paramount+ itself is down. Trying to access Paramount+ from a different browser, device or network, such as switching from home Wi-Fi to a mobile hotspot, can help determine whether the issue is specific to a user’s own setup. Other recommended steps include disabling any active VPN connection, clearing the device’s DNS cache, and restarting the home router. If the service works properly through one of those alternate methods, the original problem is more likely local to the user’s specific device or network rather than a confirmed, platform-wide Paramount+ outage.

A History of Occasional Disruptions

Paramount+ has experienced periodic service disruptions in the past, consistent with most major streaming platforms that rely on complex, distributed technical infrastructure to deliver content to millions of subscribers simultaneously. Past user reports collected by outage-tracking services have included complaints ranging from apps becoming stuck in a loading state, to live streams cutting out mid-broadcast, to specific content or channels becoming temporarily unavailable, even when the broader platform otherwise appeared to be functioning normally for most users.

A Platform With Growing Sports and Live Programming Demands

Paramount+ has increasingly leaned into live sports programming as a core part of its subscription offering, including coverage of the NFL, UEFA Champions League and Europa League matches, Italy’s Serie A, and college sports including March Madness, content delivered through partnerships tied to the platform’s underlying CBS broadcast infrastructure. That growing reliance on live, real-time streaming, particularly around major sporting events, can place additional strain on a platform’s technical systems compared with on-demand movie and television content, a dynamic that has periodically contributed to service disruptions across the broader streaming industry when live viewership spikes unexpectedly.

What to Do if You’re Experiencing Problems

Users continuing to experience issues with Paramount+ are encouraged to submit their own reports through outage-tracking platforms such as Downdetector, since crowdsourced user reporting remains one of the fastest ways such services detect emerging problems, often well before an official acknowledgment is issued by the company itself. Paramount’s own customer support channels, including its social media accounts, have in the past provided direct assistance to individual users experiencing account-specific or technical problems, typically by requesting additional details through direct message so a representative can investigate the specific issue.

As of Friday afternoon, the scope and current status of the reported Paramount+ disruption remained somewhat unclear, with user reports and independent monitoring services offering a mixed picture of whether the issue was ongoing, already resolved, or limited to a smaller subset of users or specific platform features. Paramount had not issued any official statement addressing the reported problems as of the time of this report. Users experiencing ongoing difficulty are advised to check the platform’s official status page and outage-tracking services for the most current information as the situation continues to develop.