That really isn't surprising - so many people are using the newly found free time with quarantining to pick up new hobbies. Several people I know alone have picked up some fairly niche hobbies - one friend randomly took up sewing.
Still - always good news by me if guitar playing is picking up traction!
Re: Fender posts record sales
Wait. WHat? Fender is selling records now?
ba-dum pssss!
I'll be here all week. Try the veal!
Way too many people read their own context into those articles that circulated about guitar being dead. All they were saying was that with the popularity of the synth and drum machine based neo-soul music that guitar based music was losing ground. And they were right. However, as with anything, your context matters and depending on what you listen to, that assertion is either correct or incorrect. I listen to a lot of Indie bands and they are typically guitar heavy. I listen to almost zero neo-soul. (Who is that Solange person? Actually I know she is Beyonce's sister. That was for effect.) So yeah. In one context, guitar is dead. In other contexts, it is alive and well and I have 7 of them in my music rooms.
I have my hands into a few places in the music industry, and I can say that overall everything is a bit busier than it was pre-Covid. More instruments and software are being sold, and more people are recording albums (with or without a studio).
And heck yeah, guitar is alive and well, just as it has been all along! There are a lot of changes in the industry (digital guitar amps are now indistinguishable from tube amps), but the 'ol log with strings is still going!
Then again, I primarily listen to metal, and it's very difficult to do that without guitars.