Records have been a way for people to listen to music for decades now, but the fad has only resurfaced in the last few years as individual record sales increased by over 7 million from 2008 to 2014.

Vinyl was the most popular way to listen to music until the invention of cassettes and CD’s came along. Since it’s human nature to want the next big thing, record sales began to decline and other forms of music became more common.

When music was first offered digitally, iPods and MP3 players became incredibly popular and made vinyl all but extinct.

When asked about what form of music she preferred, Ally McSwain (11) said, “I can see why people think that records are cool, but I see them as unnecessary and too expensive when there are ways to listen to music for much cheaper.”

The opinion that vinyl is unnecessary in the world of music today is becoming less popular each day as the fad of vinyl takes over the music industry.

According to Time Magazine, vinyl record revenue has surpassed the revenue that comes from free streaming services such as Spotify because of vinyl revenue raising over 51% in the last year.

Record enthusiast Brandon Cary (12) voiced his opinion by saying, “I prefer vinyl because it’s cool to physically have the music in your hands and the balances on instruments and levels sounds much better than digital versions of the same music.”

Records are not only a way to listen to music in a different way, they are also becoming a highly collectible item. As the revival of vinyl has become increasingly popular, record labels have taken advantage of the fad by pressing different variants of the same record so that fans can collect them and pay a lot of money for rarer variants of their favorite albums.  

Senior Abby Craig was asked about how she felt about the vinyl revival and she said, “I can see why they have become popular because they are pretty entertaining to listen to and to collect and I love looking at how cool some of the variants look.”

As the end of the the calendar year approaches, many people will have their favorite albums of the year on their wish list, and the individual record sales will continue to increase.

It is surprising that vinyl has made a comeback, but the question to ask now is how much longer will the trend last until people move on to the next big thing?

A dark green variant of the new Foxing record, Dealer. Photo by Noah McLaughlin.