Topline
Streams of chill, endless hip-hop beats set to visuals of animated characters have taken over YouTube, beloved by millions of users who listen to these videos while working or trying to fall asleep.
YouTube Music displayed on a smartphone next to a pair of earphones. (Photo Illustration by Rafael … [+]
Key Facts
Lo-fi music is, by definition, considered to be less polished and professionally made than music typically would be—this doesn’t mean the music is bad, rather, it uses lower sound quality, audio imperfections and less professional equipment to curate its aesthetic.
Lo-fi stands for “low fidelity,” in contrast with “high fidelity,” or higher quality production.
The term “lo-fi” dates back decades: In a retrospective review, Pitchfork credited the Beach Boys’ 1967 album, Smiley Smile, for “basically inventing” the lo-fi sound that would influence later artists.
Today, lo-fi music is best known as a subgenre of downtempo electronic music containing hip-hop beats with a relaxed aesthetic that has exploded in popularity as a genre to work or study to.
Artists J Dilla and Nujabes are considered among the artists who helped pioneer modern lofi music—particularly the latter, whose soundtrack for the anime show Samurai Champloo linked lofi music’s hip-hop beats with the Japanese art form, a bond that persists through popular YouTube streams that set lo-fi beats to anime visuals.
Lo-Fi Music Characteristics
Today’s viral lo-fi music has a few distinct characteristics, according to a MasterClass guide to lo-fi. One characteristic is a drum loop, either of live drums or a sample, usually set to a slow or moderate tempo. Another is jazz chord progressions for their “relaxed” quality, which can be sampled from a variety of instruments including piano and guitar. Other qualities can include vocal samples and samples of other sound effects. Many lo-fi streams on YouTube set their endless beats to animated visuals, which Dazed reported are often “depressed cartoon characters that smoke or recline just like the stoners among these stations’ listener bases.” One channel hosts a lo-fi stream set to an animation of a pig smoking in a cluttered room, while another features an animated racoon calmly walking while listening to music.
Why Lo-Fi Music Became Popular
Lo-fi music really took off in the mainstream over the past decade after YouTube launched continuous live-streaming in 2013. This paved the way for some of lo-fi’s best-known artists to develop a following by playing continuous loops of lo-fi music. One such channel, first named ChilledCow but now known as Lofi Girl, launched in 2017 and developed a significant following by broadcasting endless lo-fi beats set to an animation of an anime-style girl studying. The channel, owned by French artist Dimitri, was briefly suspended by YouTube in 2020, at which point it had streamed for more than 13,000 hours and amassed more than 218 million views, but it was reinstated after public backlash with YouTube deeming the suspension a “mistake.” Another brief YouTube suspension in 2022 sparked the hashtag #BringBackLofiGirl. Lo-fi music has clicked with viewers because of its relaxed and calming aesthetic and because of its pairing with animated visuals. Washington, D.C.-based DJ Ryan Celsius told Vice his theory about the popularity of lo-fi streams is because of nostalgia for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and Toonami, which used relaxed beats for their shows and commercials and introduced many kids and teenagers to anime.
Popular Lo-Fi Music To Stream
The Lofi Girl YouTube channel offers three streams: “lofi hip hop radio 📚 – beats to relax/study to,” “synthwave radio 🌌 – beats to chill/game to” and “lofi hip hop radio 💤 – beats to sleep/chill to.” The Lofi Girl channel now has more than 12.5 million subscribers, and its Instagram account has nearly 1 million followers. Chillhop Music, another lo-fi music YouTube channel, has more than 3 million subscribers and offers two livestreams: one for “jazzy & lofi hip hop beats” and another for “beats to study/relax to.” Spotify has also participated in the lo-fi music craze—it has curated several popular lo-fi music playlists. Spotify’s most popular lo-fi playlist, “lofi beats,” has more than 5 million likes. Other playlists curated by Spotify include “chill lofi study beats,” “lofi sleep” and “lofi summer haze.”
Further Reading
Lo-fi Music Guide: History and Characteristics of Lo-fi Music (MasterClass)
Inside YouTube’s calming ‘Lofi Hip Hop Radio to Relax/Study to’ community (Dazed)
How ‘Lofi Hip Hop Radio to Relax/Study to’ Became a YouTube Phenomenon (Vice)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/04/26/what-to-know-about-lo-fi-music-the-viral-hit-thats-taken-over-youtube/