Lofi and Chill: New Sounds For A New Time
It seems like within the past two years lofi hip-hop beats have exploded on both YouTube and Spotify. But what is lofi, and what makes it so appealing to so many people? Lofi hip-hop is a genre of music where there are intentional imperfections within the music, such as the hiss of cassette tape or the sound of a needle on a record. There are often no lyrics, and if there are words, they have some sense of the atmosphere the artist is attempting to create. The real explosion comes from the mastermind, Lofi Girl. Lofi Girl has over nine million subscribers on YouTube, and their biggest Spotify playlist has over five million followers. What makes this person’s content so special?
When you look at any of Lofi Girl’s videos or live streams, they’re very simple, short loops of a girl either doing homework, reading a book, or resting somewhere in her bedroom. Usually, her cat is somewhere in the frame, rhythmically swinging its tail back and forth. There is nothing very special or groundbreaking about the animation. The only other thing on the screen is a slowly changing ad in the bottom left-hand corner for Lofi Girl’s social media and the title of the song in the upper left-hand corner. The draw is not the visual aspect of the video, but rather the music that is playing, one song blended right into another.
These live streams also have a chat feature on the side and here is where the answer to why people love this person’s content so much lies. When you look in the live stream, there are so many people sharing where they are in the world, what they’re studying for, and wishing each other good luck on whatever tests and papers they are working on. As of writing this there are messages being sent such as “My science exam is in 5 minutes” and “Good Studies for you <3.” There is a community in these live stream chats or in the comments of some of their videos. There is a community of people who feel less alone in the world while they work to this background music.
Sonically, lofi is the perfect blend of sounds to make your brain work. The beat itself is gentle: not terribly slow, but by no considerations fast. It’s a repetitive loop that goes on for about a minute or two with a barely perceptible melody above it. The occasional lyric will be a line from an anime or the sound of a train announcement over a crinkly PA. Other than that, there is nothing that will pop out of the music to catch your attention, it is perfectly ignorable. With this magic recipe, lofi is poised to become the new background music of college studying.
Largely the demographic watching these streams is college students or students in general trying to get some of their homework done. The animation of a girl, deep in focused study, is something that most students can relate to at some point or another. We’ve all been the person sitting at our desk with a laptop open in front of us and several notebooks spread out, intensely focused on the task at hand. We see ourselves in that girl, productive and concentrated. And if you don’t see who you currently are in her, maybe she is what you are aspiring to be in that moment. She’s what you want to be, and you can project her focus and relaxation onto yourself.
With all the popularity that these streams have, you would think that there would be a profit in it, that the people running them would be making a huge amount of profit from all the people who tune in. In fact, they might be losing money because of how much it costs to run a server powerful enough to have a 24/7 live stream going. That plus paying licensing fees to use the music in their streams, so they don’t get accidentally shut down like Lofi Girl did in early 2020, means that whatever money they are making from merchandise and Patreon subscribers is going right back into keeping the stream running. When Lofi Girl, then known as ChilledCow, was suspended in February of 2020, it was because of copyright issues. The stream ended abruptly after over 13,000 hours of streaming, and then the next day the video was classified as unplayable by YouTube. The suspension was less than a day long, but people all over felt the absence of the girl studying at her desk.
The community surrounding lofi music, and specifically Lofi Girl, is an odd one. People don’t ever really know who they are interacting with, if they’re interacting with each other at all but somehow, we all rally behind this one girl, hunched over her desk and working away at her homework. If lofi beats aren’t for you, there are other videos that are oddly similar with different music that will help you find your peace in studying. One of my personal favorites to relax and read a book to is Nemo’s Dreamscapes on YouTube. These videos feature music from the 1920’s set low behind some sort of white noise, whether its rain or a train or rain on a train. They manage to help me sleep when I’m stuck lying awake at two in the morning. Whatever your preference is, there will be someone there to suit your needs, all you have to do is follow the relaxing beat.