Cold Chisel ProfileMore and more acts are joining the K-Pop boycott of the 2027 Grammys.
The issue is over The Recording Academy’s new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category.
It was to reflect the increased rise in K-Pop, J-Pop, and C-Pop.
Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. argues, “The Asian Pop category was created to celebrate the depth, diversity, and extraordinary growth of pop artistry coming out of Asia.
“The spirit of this new category is to shine a dedicated spotlight on these artists. More categories mean more artists’ work is recognized. It’s never to divide, but to expand who is recognized by our 15,000 Grammy voters.”
But the K-Pop industry sees it as segregation. K-Pop superstars BTS were the first to refuse to submit their music for consideration by Grammy voters for the February 7 event.
This is quite understandable. BTS outsell and outperform US acts including Taylor Swift, Billie Eillish, and Ariana Grande. They’ve sold 17.3 million albums in the US and 50 million globally. 42% of Americans have heard of them, a figure rising to 59% among 18-24 year olds and 56% in the 25-34 demographic.
They’ve ranked as top sellers in America of physical formats as CDs, outsell major US acts in terms of first day tour sales, and are among the few acts who have had a number of No. 1 debuts on the American charts.
Following BTS’ lead are Stray Kids, who have had nine albums come in at No. 1 in America, and have sold 40 million worldwide. CORTIS, ATEEZ, aespa, LE SSERAFIM, ILLIT, and Hearts2Hearts have not submitted either.
It’s a test case for the Grammys, as streaming kicks up more non-English speaking music acts from around the world.
In the meantime here are 14 more examples of acts who took their stands for different reasons.
Cold Chisel, 1981
In 1981, TV Week came into partnership to host the Countdown Rock Music Awards at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.
That year Cold Chisel had broken through with East (it sold 200,000 units) and won the seven categories they were nominated for.
They refused to personally accept the awards, leaving it to their record company chief to do so. But they did agree to finish the show by performing My Turn To Cry off East.
Annoyed that a TV magazine should involve itself in music awards, Chisel changed the lyrics: “I never saw you at the Astra Hotel/I never saw you at the Largs Pier/I never saw you in Fitzroy Street, and now you’re tryin’ to use my face to sell TV Week … So eat this! Eat this! Eat this! Eat this!”
At which point they smashed up the set and left the venue. Ian Moss’ regret: he couldn’t smash up his guitar despite repeatedly hammering it against his amps.
“[Jimi] Hendrix and Pete Townshend made it look so easy, but I just couldn’t break it! The strings were cutting into my hands. I don’t know what the timber was; it weighed a tonne, and it just wouldn’t break.”
Jimmy Barnes stated: “We finished the act, we ran straight out the back door, we were just cackin’ ourselves, into the car and left.
“We threw our own party down the road, we boycotted the Countdown party, and everybody came to our party. In the end, even Molly [Meldrum] came over to our party – we threw him out.”
Meldrum and the Countdown team loved the smash-up because it was live TV at its instantaneous. But TV Week never got involved in music awards again.
David Bowie, 2000 and 2003
David Bowie turned down two honours from the British Government – a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000, and a knighthood in 2003 the year Mick Jagger got his.
“I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that,” he told the London Sun. “I seriously don’t know what it’s for. It’s not what I spent my life working for.”
Magazine editors around the world feverishly hoped he would be offered another honour for him to reject. This way they could use the headline “Treble rebel”.
Axl Rose, 2012
When Guns ‘N’ Roses got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 14, 2012, there was no Axl Rose.
Myles Kennedy took mic duties when Slash, powered into a four-song set with Duff McKagan, Steven Adler, Matt Sorum, and Gilby Clarke.
Axl had earlier published an open letter stating he was not attending the ceremony.
He warned, “Neither former members, label representatives nor the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame should imply whether directly, indirectly or by omission that I am included in any purported induction of ‘Guns ‘N’ Roses.”
This induction was during the infamous rift in the Gunners ranks.
Rose concluded: “So let sleeping dogs lie or lying dogs sleep or whatever. Time to move on. People get divorced. Life doesn’t owe you your own personal happy ending especially at another’s, or in this case several others’, expense.”
Silverchair, 1995
At the 1995 ARIA awards, Silverchair declined to pick up any of their five winning trophies. Rather Josh Shirley, seven year old son of their producer Kevin ‘Caveman’ Shirley was sent to do the honours.
Josh didn't make the after-party as he went off to sleep in his chair before the awards finished. He would later become an assistant engineer on his dad’s projects.
Silverchair habitually turned down offers from ARIA to be inducted into its Hall of Fame. One was a decision by ‘Chair not to agree to it until their heroes You Am I were welcomed first.
Five years ago, Daniel Johns further told the Who Is Daniel Johns? podcast, “I don’t want to be in the Hall of Fame until I’m dead.
“I’m not even finished. I’m not even close. I’m about halfway but the second half is going to be better. I don’t want to be in the Hall of Fame for something that’s not finished … hall of lame …”
Dolly Parton, 2021
“It’d be nice but I’m not sure I even deserved it,” Dolly Parton would use it as a justification to refuse honours.
On The Today Show in 2021, Parton revealed she’d turned down the USA’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom – not just once… or twice … but three times.
It was offered twice during Donald Trump’s first presidency. She nixed it the first time because her husband was ill, and the second time because it was during COVID-19 and she didn’t want to fly to be at any ceremony.
When she heard Joe Biden was offering it, she rushed in and excused herself because she didn’t want it to be associated with politics.
Parton would have probably had to go for strike four because another President was also inclined. Barack Obama said in 2020 he was “shocked” he had not granted her the honour during his time in the White House. “That was a screw up, I assumed she already had one.”
In February 2022 when she was in the 17-strong shortlist for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Parton asked to be excused.
“I do not feel that I have earned (the) right to be included on the list. I do not want votes to be split because of me and must respectfully bow out." But by November, she changed her mind and accepted.
Frank Ocean, 2017
2016 marked the breakthrough of Frank Ocean’s Blonde album. But he decided not to submit it for consideration by the 2017 Grammy voters.
He didn’t want Blonde to be dissed and devalued, noting that in 30 years, only six black artists had won Album Of The Year. He described the Grammys’ awarding, nomination, and screening systems as outdated.
He told The New York Times, “That institution certainly has nostalgic importance. It just doesn’t seem to be representing very well for people who come from where I come from, and hold down what I hold down.”
Nick Cave, 1996
Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads album from 1996 nudged him closer to mainstream appeal than he was comfortable with.
But when the MTV Awards included him in the nominations for Best Male Artist, it was clearly time to draw a line in the sand.
In October a missive was dispatched “to all those at MTV”, suggesting that in future, nominations be “presented to those who feel more comfortable with the competitive nature of these award ceremonies.
“I am in competition with no-one. My relationship with my muse is a delicate one at the best of times and I feel that it is my duty to protect her from influences that may offend her fragile nature.”
He went on to say his muse was not a horse to be judged, and he would not “harness her to this tumbrel – this bloody cart of severed heads and glittering prizes. My muse may spook! May bolt! May abandon me completely!”
He wrote off gracefully, “I say thank you but no… no thank you.”
In 2015, Kylie Minogue – one of his collaborators on Murder Ballads – read out part of the letter for its use of the English language on the literary video series Letters Live.
Sinéad O’Connor, 1991
When the 1991 Grammys put her in the Best Alternative Music Performance category, Sinéad O’Connor told them to stick it as she felt the Grammys represented a music industry that had “fake and destructive materialistic values.”
John Lennon, 1969
In October 1965, all four members of The Beatles were honoured with MBEs (Members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. That’s when they famously smoked pot in the stately toilets.
John Lennon said at the time, “Lots of people who complained about us getting the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war. They got them for killing people. We got ours for entertaining. I’d say we deserve ours more.”
Privately, Lennon later felt he’d sold out his working class values by accepting the MBE in the first place.
In 1969, Lennon drove to his Aunt Mimi’s home in Bournemouth, collected his medal, and sent it back to Buckingham Palace.
At the time, the British Government was supporting Nigeria in a bloody civil war against the unrecognised state of Biafra.
Lennon’s letter to the Queen read: "Your Majesty, I am returning my MBE as a protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against (his latest single) Cold Turkey slipping down the charts. With love. John Lennon of Bag."
Bag was the artistic company Lennon set up with Yoko Ono.
A draft of the letter was later found in a car boot and valued at £60,000 (AU$114,081).
Paul Weller, 2007
Paul Weller had publicly made comments about the irrelevance of the Royal Family, and had written anti-monarchist songs like Just Who Is The 5 O’Clock Hero and 7 + 1 Is The Striker’s Name and attacked the upper class establishment on Eton Rifles, Find The Torch Burn The Plans, and Going Underground.
They still offered him a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in the New Year Honours list in 2007.
He explained to the BBC why he turned it down: “I’m not really into it. It’s not my sort of thing. I don’t like the Royal Family, I don’t like the establishment, I don’t like the civil service.”
Shane Howard, 2023
Goanna leader Shane Howard returned his Order of Australia (the OAM which he received in 2016), after the loss of the Voice to Parliament referendum in 2023.
In a letter to the Governor-General, Howard explained, “When I wrote the song, Solid Rock, Sacred Ground, 40 years ago, I wanted us to address the fundamental lie at the heart of our national story.
"I dreamt of a country respectful of our ancient history and honest about our modern history. I wanted to be proud of my country.
"I love my birth country deeply but until we lose our colonial shackles, engage in Treaty-making with our First Peoples, commit to truth-telling about our history and embrace a post-colonial republic, I cannot be proud of my nation."
Mark Walton, 2021
Clarinettist, saxophonist, composer and Chair of Woodwind at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Mark Walton, was one of those who returned his Order of Australia in 2021.
They were protesting tennis champion turned religious leader Margaret Court being accorded a high level Companion of the Order of Australia. Court’s religious beliefs had seen her make anti-LGBTQIA+ statements.
He posted on social media, “I feel obliged to return my honour in protest about current developments with the Australian Honours system.
“Everything I do is about total inclusivity and done with a fair amount of love. People can hold whatever opinions they choose but those opinions must never impact negatively on other human beings”.
Nitin Sawhney, 2007
British multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Nitin Sawhney made his mark blending Indian classical music, jazz, flamenco, electronica, and orchestral.
He collaborated with Paul McCartney, Sting, Anoushka Shankar, Shakira, and the London Symphony Orchestra.
In 2007, he turned down an invitation to receive an OBE because of the links to Britain’s colonial past. “I wouldn’t like anything with the word ’empire’ after my name,” he explained to The New Statesman.
“I felt very strongly about what had happened in Iraq, and I thought it would be hypocritical to take any award that said ’empire’ in the wake of this country invading another country and killing women and children. I don’t want to be part of that world”.
However, Sawhney had a change of heart after his father became upset because he’d turned down the honour. As a peace-offering to his late father, he accepted a CBE when it was offered in 2019.
Sex Pistols, 2006
John Lydon was so enraged that the Sex Pistols were among names to be included in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's Class of 2006 that he immediately fired off a letter.
"Next to the Sex Pistols, rock and roll and that hall of fame is a piss stain. Your museum. Urine in wine. We're not your monkey and so what? Fame at $25,000 if we paid for a table, or $15,000 to squeak up in the gallery, goes to a non-profit organisation selling us a load of old famous.
“You're anonymous as judges, but you're still music industry people. We're not coming. You're not paying attention."
