The Grammys Is Expanding It's Major Categories to 8 Nominees

The Grammys are following in the footsteps of the Oscars, after critics have called out their shocking lack of diversity, particularly for female artists.

The top four major categories--Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist--will get bumped up from five to eight nominees, Billboardreports.

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"This creates more opportunities for a wider-range of recognition in these important categories and gives more flexibility to our voters when having to make the often challenging decisions about representing excellence and the best in music for the year," said Grammy president Neil Portnow in a statement (he'll leave his position next summer).

The Oscars expanded their Best Picture category to allow for up to ten nominees in 2009 in a similar effort to recognize more than just huffy indie films for the top award in cinema.