Not Ready to Change Styles

When I was his age, preparing for marriage filled a lot of my time. Harry Styles, however, is on a much different trajectory than I was then.  His musical career started in 2010 when he showed up on the British music competition series The X Factor.   Eventually, he was teamed up with One Direction, one of the best-selling boy bands in history.

Now Harry’s making history once again but as a solo artist.  He set a record for first-week vinyl sales with Harry’s House.  The release sold 182,000 copies in the United States, the most since the firm Luminate started tracking such data in 1991, even beating out Taylor Swift’s 114,000 units in the fall of last year.

America hasn’t given up its reliance on petroleum.  Records are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC).  It comes from refined oil.  But audiophiles aren’t alone.  Even with a growing number of electric vehicles (EV) on the road, America is not ready to give up the use of petrochemicals.   An EV still needs tires on which to roll.  Consumers aren’t changing travel plans much despite the rising costs of fuel.  The price of oil has been elevated all year, but many Americans have kept their plans to travel during the summer. 

There are many reasons why transitioning away from carbon-based fuels is a good idea, but the economy isn’t there yet.  In other words, consumers and suppliers have yet to find price points which promote wide adoption of alternative fuel sources.  Atlas believes such a day will come, but we aren’t convinced the energy supply that will be used most widely has been settled.  In the meantime, we’ll hang on to the polyester in the closet; maybe Harry can usher it back into style.