at SPIN online, Marc Hogan finds "5 Signs of Retromania" in SoundScan's 2012 Mid-Year Report

the short version

1. Vinyl and Digital Album Sales Increased. Vinyl went up by 14.2 per cent.

2. This Year's Only Million-Selling Album Came Out Last Year. .ie. Adele's 21 . And it's retro-soul.

3. The Top Three Non-Adele Albums Were By Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston, and a Boy Band. LR's Tuskegee sold nearly a million.


4. The Best-Selling Vinyl Album Was the Vinyliest of the Vinyl. i.e Jack White's  Blunderbuss, followed closely by Black Keys's El Camino.

5. The Most-Streamed Digital Song Was the Viralest of the Viral. Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe"  -- I don't get why this is a sign of retromania, to be honest. 

^^^^^^^^^^

 

in other retro-y news:

 

MTV's Retro Mania slot includes Daria (proper 90s alt-nostalgia), but also programs as recent as The Hills. 

 

That Rock of Ages Eighties-hair-metal/Sunset-Strip-nostalgia-mining jukebox musical got turned into a movie