Merchant’s view
Merchant told Hindustan Times he was not surprised at all to learn of the BTS decision, describing preference for American artistes as simply how the Academy operates and as its prerogative.
His broader point concerns where non-American music ends up. He argued that because the Academy’s proceeds go towards American recording artists, a non-American entry has very limited chances of landing in the main categories, and that the rest of the global industry is effectively treated as world music.
That framing is the sharper part of his case. Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. has insisted the opposite is true, saying that submitting in a genre category does not exclude an artist from the general field. Merchant’s contention is about practice rather than rules: the door is technically open, but the traffic goes elsewhere.
He also raised the question of access. As he put it to the paper, an Indian citizen submitting an album would come nowhere close to a nomination without collaborating with an Academy member.
The two examples he cites
Merchant pointed to AR Rahman’s Slumdog Millionaire wins, noting that Rahman had strong representation in the United States at the time through the Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, which he said handled the composer’s Hollywood representation during a period when Rahman was considering a move to the US.
His second example was Ricky Kej. Merchant noted that for Divine Tides, Kej collaborated with Stewart Copeland, formerly of The Police, a respected Academy member and established American artist, and argued this made the record a much stronger contender.
Merchant’s conclusion is that recording artists in India and elsewhere largely do not know how any of this works, which is arguably the most useful thing in his commentary. The mechanics of Grammy campaigning, membership, screening committees and voting blocs are opaque even to people inside the industry.
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