The Grammys announced Wednesday that they’re cutting down the number of award categories, from 109 to 78, as a major overhaul for next year’s ceremony.

They will merge some of the existing categories, while some will just be dropped. The R&B genre is affected the most, its number of categories slashed to 4 from 8. The three seperate awards for male vocal performance, female vocal performance, and group vocal performance have been merged into one R&B vocal performance award.

The major awards: best new artist, album of the year, and record of the year will be kept untouched.

Neil Portnow, president of Recording Academy, said, “Every year, we diligently examine our awards structure to develop an overall guiding vision and ensure that it remains a balanced and viable process. After careful and extensive review and analysis of all categories and fields, it was objectively determined that our Grammy categories be restructured to the continued competition and prestige of the highest and only peer-recognized award in music.”

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