The background of lofi music was very interesting to me. I didn’t know this, but the definition of lofi is, “the production or reproduction of audio characterized by an unpolished or rough sound quality.” Before it was ever called “lofi music”, it was called DIY music. What surprised me the most is that this kind of music has been around since the 1950s and can be traced back to rock and roll music. Through the rest of the decades, DIY music changed and evolved, until the 1990s. In 1993, the term “lo-fi” became mainstream. While lofi music was out there, it wasn’t really widely known until the early 2010s when it became popular on YouTube. While there are artists that mainly do lofi music like R. Stevie Moore, Ariel Pink, and the Beach Boys, really anyone nowadays with the technology can make lofi music easily.
I think we all know the video is lofi music when you see the lofi girl pictured in many of the videos, where she’s sitting at her desk with headphones on studying. But some other audio characteristics of lofi music are misplayed notes, downtempo beats, sampling, background noise, low hum, distortions, etc. Before this semester, I never really listened to lofi or low-fidelity music. I have listened to it before but it never really interested me until this semester. I guess before it wasn’t that stimulating to me; it was just kind of boring, but now I listen to it whenever I am studying or doing chores. For me personally, I find the music to be calming and soothing, so listening to it while I work or do chores isn’t distracting, but still gives me something to listen to.
My most played playlist when I am studying is the peaceful rainy day playlist on Youtube. What I like most about this playlist is that it was extremely calming with the water sounds in the background. There are also the soft hip-hop songs that are just very uplifting. I like listening to music that has no vocals when I am studying because I’m more concentrated and I don’t have the urge to sing along.
My most played playlist when I am cleaning is the cherry blossom playlist also on Youtube. Whenever I listen to this playlist I feel like dancing all around the house (even though I’m supposed to be cleaning). I had never heard of jazz-hop before I started listening to this and I fell in love with this music.