Known as one of K-Pop’s longest-running and most respected award ceremonies, the Golden Disc Awards has always been known to be one of the better award programs due to its emphasis on credibility, numbers, and rewarding artists based on their actual musical performances and sales rather than popularity alone.
However, the award program has been swept up in a controversy after the decision to change things up this year. Awarding three separate Daesangs instead of just one grand winner. This has led to an onslaught of netizens debating across various platforms, sparking the discussion about fairness and shifting industry norms.
Traditionally, the Golden Disc Awards are known for presenting two Daesangs: Album Daesang and Digital Song Daesang. But now with a third Daesang, fans are, needless to say, quite upset.
Moreso because this announcement comes shortly after ALLDAY PROJECT winning a Daesang from KGMA, despite having debuted within half a year.
Now, the reason why this has become such a huge controversy is that Daesang is considered to be the highest honor anyone in the Korean music entertainment can receive. So the fact that there will now be three Daesangs given results in fans feeling the prestige of the award to be diluted. By expanding the number of awards, fans are arguing that it lessens the weight of each award. Additionally, it makes it harder to see who truly earned the ‘highest honor’ and feels more like providing the groups with these awards for their participation in the ceremony than because of their achievements.
Also, whenever a new award category is suddenly announced, well, let’s just say it leads to natural suspicion that these awards are changed so that certain groups are assured to win. Thus, fandoms question ‘Was this award added to ensure a specific artist can win something? Is this a strategic move to avoid backlash from large fandoms?’
Then, of course, there’s the whole confusion of what criteria were used to create this new category, as GDA is always more data-based, relying on physical sales, digital performances, and streaming numbers to award the Daesang. Adding a third award left many fans confused about what the metrics and standards were used to determine the winner.
So this idea of adding on a third Daesang has undeniably caused a frenzy among various K-pop fandoms, but it also signals the growth and complexity of the world of K-pop. As the industry evolves, can we expect more of these new awards to be added at the last minute, thus leading to the questionable validity of what was an otherwise prestigious award program? We will have to see.
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