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Lo-Fi Beats in a Hi-Fi World
An internet-based genre of chill music helps people to destress and focus
I’m quoted in The Washington Post!
It’s 9pm. I sit at my desk to work on an article. My laptop is dimly lit by a tungsten lamp. Beside it, a cup of green tea. This is my happy place. I turn on a playlist of lo-fi hip hop beats to complete my restorative setup. The steady rhythms and chill vibes are the aural equivalent of drinking soup that never gets cold. Like a cuppa Campbell’s, it’s music for the soul.
A month ago, I discovered a YouTube stream called “lofi hip hop radio — beats to relax/study to,” from a user known as “ChilledCow.” Maybe it was the cute cartoon thumbnail or the promise of lactose relaxant, but I clicked on it. This took me to a page of 20,000 people listening to soulful tunes that made me want to close my eyes and nod my head. I don’t usually get this involved with audio files but there’s a first for everything.
Onscreen, a clip of an anime girl studying in her room. To its right, a chat box of people talking about nothing in particular. One user typed, “life sucks.” Another replied, “yes it does.” From that moment on, I was hooked on lo-fi hip hop beats.
What is lo-fi hip hop?
Lo-fi hip hop is a genre of sampled music that became popular on the internet in…
