Justin Timberlake may be sitting pretty in terms of total Grammy nominations, but there is a startling lack of nominations for major categories. He will actually be sharing the majority of the nods he did get with rapper Jay-Z for collaborations on “Suit & Tie” and “Holy Grail”. “Mirrors” is up for Best Pop Solo Performance and “Pusher Love Girl” for Best R&B Song. Timberlake’s other nomination is for Best Pop Vocal Album.

Members of the media are already calling it a snub, and it’s hard to argue against the sentiment. His critically-acclaimed album, “The 20/20 Experience”, was the most successful of the year. It has sold 2.3 million copies to date. The second part has sold well over 600,000 copies, bringing his total sales to close to 3 million for the year. Suffice it to say, this is quite a feat in a post “illegal mp3 download” world.

But sales aren’t everything, and the decision to overlook Timberlake in the major categories seems to drive this point home. Glancing over the list of people who did make it into the list for top honors, you’ll note that most of them are new faces. While some became popular over the last two or three years, the majority are riding on major and fairly recent buzz. The young singer Lorde with her hit “Royals” is a prime example. Not only does she join Timberlake in two of his pop categories, her music is up for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Find out how Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga and 1D got #snubbed by the 2014 Grammy noms: http://t.co/rLCDXUH6Mx

— MTV News (@MTVNews) December 7, 2013

But before we dismiss the Grammys as being all about everything new this year, it should be noted that Daft Punk could also be drawing top honors for their successful “Random Access Memories” album and single, “Get Lucky”. Pharrell Williams is featured in that song, as well as another song up for an award: “Blurred Lines” with T.I. and Robin Thicke.

Parallels are often drawn between Timberlake and Thicke over the neo “blue-eyed soul” sound and styling, raising some speculation on the inclusion of one for Record of the Year and the ignoring of the other.

It’s doubtful that Justin Timberlake will be too bothered about which categories he missed out on this year. It’s more likely that he’s hoping what everyone else who got a nomination is hoping: To not go home empty-handed.

Image: Justin Timberlake’s Facebook