Making one wonder what the hell is wrong with the post-hipsters of today, there's news that vinyl has competition in the favourite formats of yester-year sweepstakes. 

Billboard has reported that sales of albums of once-thought-obsolete cassette tapes jumped 23 percent last year according to stats compiled by the industry anylsts at Nielsen Music. And, no, that doesn't mean that consumers bought 10 cassette tapes last year instead of the six they did in 2017.

And no, not all of those cassettes were purchased at Red Cat Records. 

Doing the biggest business at cash registers—virtual or otherwise—were soundtracks from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise (a total of 43,000 for Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 compilations were sold) and 21 Pilots' Trench (7,000 moved). 

The soundtrack to the intentionally retro Netflix hit Stranger Things racked up sales of 5,000, with re-issues (Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang [36 Chambers], Britney Spears's …Baby One More Time, and Guns N’ Roses Appetite for Destruction)  also appealing to those nostaglic for a simpler time.

By simpler, we mean a time when one's Craig AP9911 cassette tape deck would chew through one's favourite tapes at least once a week in the 1987 Honda CRX handed down from one's grandparents. 

Before you decide to forgo vinyl for your old new wave band's upcoming four-song EP, consider that cassette tapes have a while to go before they totally reclaim their former glory. 

219,000 copies of cassettes were sold in 2018, whereas 246 million flew out of record stores back in 1994.