Why I like Lo-Fi music
Listening to Lofi music is something that I get kind of laughed at sometimes in my peer group because of how much I like to listen to it.
I wake up, I start some lofi on YouTube (often times the Chillhop music channel is the one with the best collections. You may want to look this channel up if you don’t know what lofi sounds like).
I return from a day full of classes, tutorials, and put up some chill beats and maybe have an afternoon nap if the time permits while listening to the music or just have a productivity haul to it.
There are various but very specific reasons why I like lofi and chill beats. If you are reading this then you may want to leave the video below playing as you read through.
The first and foremost thing you recognize about this type of music is that it is very minimalistic and incorporates a lot of dirty sound samples. A lot of lofi artists use jazz samples in their songs and further change the beats and instruments to give this genre a very cozy vibe.
The average tempo of these tracks is quite low and almost whimsical in the sense that the beat doesn’t seem to progress anywhere and instead the song stays at its place and ends with the same vibe that it started it with.
The jazz influence on lofi music is also another thing I find interesting. I am not a frequent jazz listener. I normally get easily distracted by pop songs but I never seemed to stumble upon any jazz songs while searching for music that I like. A lot of melodies from this genre are completely foreign to me and finding out about some of the best melodies of jazz through lofi is an adventure. This way I get to see how the song inspires itself from the original track and how my favorite audio element in that song was derived from the original which made me look the source up on the internet.
Minimalism is at the heart of this genre. It strives by invoking vibes and moods only through a limited set of sounds and bass. There are no glaring trumpets and aggressive violins playing in the background. Just plain beats and lead harmonies. Even the beats are sometimes so experimental that you almost think that the drumset was picked up from a garbage dump outside the city. But still the beats work a lot for the mood and I love it.
Another thing I like about the minimalism is that it is so minimalistic that you can almost complete it yourself. I see the minimalism in lofi songs as placeholders for emotions that the listener would feel while listening to that song. You get to fill the empty spaces with whatever you feel like. This may seem completely pointless and awfully abstract but when I listen to old lofi songs, I happen to recall a lot of memories from years ago when I used to chill out to those tracks while studying for an exam under a lot of pressure or how I managed to get through large assignments while listening to lofi.
Apart from this, lofi is really the underdog when it comes to music genres. There is a very small, but active, niche community around this genre. I bet you haven’t seen a more positive comment section anywhere on YouTube than under lofi music videos.
