Crossword Genius

One plays records from America following brief trend (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

stylus

'one plays records' is the definition.

'america following brief trend' is the wordplay.
'america' becomes 'us' (abbreviation for the United States).
'following' says to put letters next to each other.
'brief' means to remove the last letter.
'trend' becomes 'style' ('style' can be a synonym of 'trend').
'style' with its final letter removed is 'styl'.
'us' after 'styl' is 'STYLUS'.

'from' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for stylus that I've seen before include "Vinyl records needle" , "Needle used for playing gramophone records" , "Engraving instrument" , "Ancient writing implement" , "Pointed device on a record player" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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