K-pop's BTS gets coveted Recording Academy membership invite

Korean pop sensation BTS has been invited to join the Recording Academy as part of a drive to diversify the group that chooses the annual Grammy Awards.

The seven-member boy band, which has led a K-pop music wave in the United States and beyond, are among some 1,300 artists, writers and music industry professionals invited to become members of the Los Angeles-based Recording Academy this week.

Should they accept, the band will be eligible to vote in the 2020 Grammy Awards, the highest honours in the music business, the Recording Academy said on Thursday.

The chief executive of their record label, Bang Si-hyuk of Big Hit Entertainment, was also among the invitees, the band said in a statement.

BTS first formed in Seoul in 2103 and broke through into the U.S. pop market in 2017 becoming the first Korean group to win a Billboard music award.

While they have yet to be Grammy-nominated, the band made their first Grammy Award appearance in February to present one of the prizes.

The Recording Academy has undertaken a series of steps in the past few years to make Grammy nominees more diverse and to expand a membership that has traditionally been dominated by older males.

It said that 49 per cent of those invited to join the Recording Academy this week were women, and 51 per cent were under age 40.

Meanwhile, the band smashed the most-viewed 24-hour debut record on YouTube with new song. Read about it here.