In most careers, hard work constitutes recognition. Whether it be a “Good job!” for your work this month or a little extra in the Christmas bonus, we all deserve awards for our achievements. However, when these awards become televised for the whole world to see and critique, the situation becomes more complicated. This year, at the Korean Grand Music Awards (KGMA), a popular award show for Asian artists, a K-pop group called ALLDAY PROJECT (ADP) won a prestigious type of award called a Daesang. This translates to Grand Prize, and is a category for achievements like “Album of the Year” and “Artist of the Year.” At first glance, this might not seem controversial, but many fans were angry after ADP won their Daesang, specifically the “Grand Honors Choice” category. For one, ADP debuted less than six months ago. Most groups work for years to earn this level of recognition, so it seems odd that this relatively unpopular group would win such a prominent award. When you add on the fact that Annie Moon, one of the members, is a great-granddaughter of the founder of Samsung, and that her grandmother is the chairwoman of one of Korea’s largest retail conglomerates, suspicion over whether this award was rightfully earned surmounts among K-pop fans. In fact, this whole situation has gone viral on social media, earning the group the nickname “All Paid Project” as clips of other artists rolling their eyes or acting confused in response to the group’s name being called at KGMA circulate on social media. Because of how influential Annie and her family are, many are saying the only reason her group won the Daesang is money and nepotism.
However, Annie isn’t the only controversial member of the group. Even before ADP won the Daesang, Chaewon Lee, who uses the stage name Tarzzan, has received significant criticism for cultural appropriation, often wearing braids or cornrows, misogynistic lyrics in his songs, and allegedly replacing the original lyrics of a song with the N-word in a clip that has since gone viral on social media. Since much of K-pop is inspired by Afro-Latin music and fashion, cultural appropriation has been a persistent issue in the industry, as well as misogyny. Many groups and performers will adjust their behavior or at least issue an apology after even one of these accusations, yet neither Tarzzan nor THEBLACKLABEL—the label ADP is under—has commented on these allegations.
However, this end-of-year award season for Asian artists, specifically in K-pop, has also seen the fruition of various idols’ hard work. This year, Stray Kids won three Daesangs—album of the year at both the Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) and Asian Artist Awards (AAA), as well as Artist of the Year at AAA, in addition to six other awards at these three major award shows. Another major group that has been rising in popularity recently is ENHYPEN, who won their first-ever Daesang this year at MAMA. Their group delivered a heartfelt speech to their fans, whom they call ENGENE (pronounced “engine”).
Another interesting aspect of this year’s MAMA was because of the occurrence of the recent disastrous fire in Hong Kong, where the award show was held. Many individual artists and labels, including Stray Kids and ENHYPEN, donated funds to go towards relief efforts. In light of the recent events, whether or not the show would be postponed was in question. While some aspects had to be adjusted in order to properly respect and mourn those who were affected by the disaster, it was decided that MAMA would go on and thus became an industry-wide effort to help those in need.
Award shows, specifically those like AAA, MAMA, and KGMA, have been questioned in terms of how staged they are since the very beginning. The same way people don’t think this actor deserved an Oscar or this singer deserved a Grammy, audiences will always argue about whether idols deserve certain awards, no matter if it’s valid or not. However, it’s important to note the very real phenomenon that is nepotism and the influence that family background and wealth can give an artist. Did ALLDAY PROJECT pay their way to getting their Daesang? I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure. But are the circumstances in which they achieved this award suspicious? Without a doubt.
