Did Gaga help spur a monster Grammy rule change?

Lady Gaga has rewritten some of the rules of pop music. And has she now helped rewrite the Grammy rule book?

At this year's awards, Gaga was excluded from the best new artist category because her song "Just Dance" had been nominated in 2008, before the former Stefani Germanotta reached critical mass. Previously nominated artists could not be up for the best new artist award. Until now.

It was an odd occurrence to be sure. Ga was arguably the most popular artist of '09 and yet was a no-show in the nominations. Perhaps her Little Monsters' collective growl woke the academy up.

"More and more, the first release of a new artist is as a featured artist on someone else's album or the new artist may release a single long before the release of his / her / their entire first album," the academy said last week in a statement.

"By current rules, if the other artist's album or the new artist's single receives a nomination, the new artist may never have the opportunity to compete in the best new artist category. With this change, each artist will have at least one opportunity to enter in this important and highly visible category."

So, Gaga continues to be a trendsetter, albeit this time without a crazy costume or out-there music video.