Sunday, October 30, 2022

Some Thoughts On A Random Thing: Lo-fi Music On YouTube

I’m really not sure who needs to hear this, but lo-fi (short for low fidelity, but also referred to as DIY) music is good. There are all different kinds and if you search YouTube, you’re bound to find a playlist an hour long or more with plenty to listen to while you hobby (yes, I’m using it as a verb), study, or work.

Lo-fi is not a genre of music so much as a style of music production in which background noises, filtered out of most professionally produced music, is left in. Detuned instruments, misplayed notes, distortion, ambient or random noise from equipment, and other sounds or voices all add to the prized characteristics of lo-fi music. Sounds or distortion might also be recorded separately and added later during production at key moments in songs to lend characteristics of lo-fi. Postmodernism can be fun.

Because the origins of lo-fi music can be traced back to the 1950’s (due more to recording technology deficits than stylistic choices), there are many genres of lo-fi music. There are a lot of bands that play can be considered lo-fi pop, rock, psychedelic, and hip-hop, but much of what you find on YouTube these days is purely electronic or instrumental known as ambient, chill-out, chillwave, hypnagogic pop, and lo-fi hip-hop.

I’m listing some of my personal favs from YouTube below. Enjoy.


Dark Ambient "Post Apocalyptic" - https://youtu.be/luQsVA3E5PE

Vaporwave/Hypnagogic Drift - https://youtu.be/WUU4NO8S6ks

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