— The New York Times Every artist, whether BTS or Bad Bunny, deserves access to the largest market without being filtered out or qualified. The solution isn't about getting rid of special markets or categories. Folk, for example, is a real thing, and if it benefits folk to have discrete awards and institutions, great. It's pop that needs to be examined, because pop is the biggest market and yet admission to it still seems largely subjective. Artists and their managers should scrutinize record companies for the way they exclude artists from their pop departments. Labels and artists should challenge playlisters at streaming services and radio station programmers about how they wield the term "pop" for some but not for others. The Recording Academy should stop inventing new award categories, especially ones based on ethnicity, nationality or language, when people aren't asking for them every division separates its occupants from the larger, more profitable market. And if those Pop Performance awards or pop playlists cannot be defined musically or aesthetically, perhaps they shouldn't exist. #ArtHasNoAliens @RecordingAcad nytimes.com/2026/08/09/opini…