Lofi: the Music to Study to

By Bridget Dunbar
Music Journalist

Lo-fi. Everyone has seen or listened to those week-long YouTube streams of anime girls studying to lo-fi jazz. But lo-fi has a much longer history than that and so many different artists have been involved in the genre.  

Lo-fi is short for “low fidelity.” The genre is characterized by imperfections in production, whether intentional or not. The genre originated in the mid-20th century; it was DIY music from artists like The Beach Boys or Paul McCartney. Garage rock, punk and indie in the 1970s all helped to develop the genre which arose in the 1990s. With the use of at-home DIY studios, bedroom pop was able to dominate lo-fi in the 2010s.    

The genre quickly began to amass popularity on YouTube, with channels creating long streams to showcase various lo-fi and chillwave artists. The genre has even developed several different aesthetics like chillwave or vaporwave, inspired by the 1990s grunge and pastel. However, the genre is filled with talent that deserves all the attention it gets for hard work and dedication to their art such as The Stacks and PASTEL GHOST, who are both from Austin, Texas.  

Lo-fi lends itself to many internet and popular trends, such as bedroom pop and shoegaze, vaporwave, chillwave, and more. It is evident that the genre has had a large influence over the late 2010s. The artists are passionate about their music and have fun producing new albums. I highly recommend listening to artists of this genre. Their music can be found on music streaming sites like SoundCloud, Spotify, YouTube and Bandcamp.