Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
In what I think was an expected decision, the 98th Academy Awards gave K-Pop Demon Hunters an Oscar for Best Animated Feature and named HUNTR/X‘s “Golden” as the Best Original Song, making the film a two-time winner that has swept through award season.
And while I didn’t cover it at the time, over a month ago, “Golden” also won at the 68th Grammys.
Honestly … just crazy?
As you probably know by now, I’m a grump and cynic when it comes to award shows, as not only are they frequently overly “local”* — as Bong Joon Ho would say — but they’re mostly just an industry circlejerk of political and financial maneuvering in order to promote themselves and their interests more than anything about artistic excellence.
*As well as racist and a slew of other things.
That said, to see a film and song with K-pop in its DNA win on the two biggest American/Western industry stages is surreal. If you told me this could happen 20 years ago when it was embarrassing even to mention you listened to a K-pop song and we were all relegated to message boards, I’d have been bowled over by laughter. And yet, here we are.
Also, since they didn’t get to perform at the Grammys, here are HUNTR/X at the Oscars, bringing a Korean cultural touch with them. Neat.
