When will the "lofi, chill, beats" meme finally end? Seriously...

When will the "lofi, chill, beats" meme finally end? Seriously, it seems like this whole j dilla/nujabes wannabe beats paired with anime visuals thing has been replicated by literally hundreds of soundcloud artists for years now, and yet it shows no signs of slowing down. Is anyone else sick of this shit or is it just me?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=OYZgIM0haJA
youtube.com/watch?v=3W2jLb7AM3s
soundcloud.com/yunghoneydew/from-the-hands-of-god
soundcloud.com/yunghoneydew/aggressive
pstmdrn.bandcamp.com/album/-
coryayo.bandcamp.com/album/blue-world
cosmic-compositions.bandcamp.com/album/new-language
youtube.com/watch?v=lEB54soL7dQ
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

Kill yourself

it's just you

check em

Ehh, its not my thing in particular, but I don't mind lo-fi music in general.

Here's the problem - has the lofi chill beats movement produced any truly great albums? To me it's a lot of copying each other and throwing singles out into the wind - what's out there that makes a great artistic statement, that could be considered a future classic, in this genre?

> genuinely want to know

I agree, all the songs end up sounding the same.

Very safe, very boring genre

Speaking of i've been listening to a lot of pic related thanks to the Cow Chop podcast.

Dude. You're posting this on Sup Forums Sup Forums. Yeah it's gay as fuck but this is what toddlers here listen to. They're still in school and need beats to study too. Just let the kids have fun.

It's only prevalent on youtube because the best way to make money on that website is to get as many people watching for as long as possible, so the radio station thing is a perfect money maker. that's what spawned all the copycats. The reason lo-fi is blowing up is because it's downtempo, non intrusive music that sounds very similar no matter who is making it. It's good music to put in the background and focus on something else with.

How about you listen to music that corresponds to how you feel and not try to impose one genre for every one that isn't feeling like you are. There's a reason why music has hundreds of different genres.

Fuck yea

I decided to use this once to study for my calculus midterm and I got a perfect score.
Never tried again.

I put it on the other day, I actually want to find good instrumental beat albums to relax to, sometimes it's good to put the stuff on at a hangout

I'm not trying to "impose one genre" on anyone. I'm just pointing out that this specific style has been done so much with so little innovation or improvement that it's grown extremely boring. I actually like some stuff similar to this, but goddamn do some of these artists lack original ideas.

fucking weebs, when will they learn?

Lol, I just bought this, too. It's a good example of instrumental shit that also has more energy and life to it.

I wish more shit was like DJ Shadow and Qbert and DJ Krush

Real lo-fi shit here nikka
youtube.com/watch?v=OYZgIM0haJA
youtube.com/watch?v=3W2jLb7AM3s

that shit annoys me too user, plebs need to leave

I'm sick of it. I love J Dilla and Nujabes and have taken lots of inspiration from them, but pretending "Lo-Fi" is a genre and not poorly rendered beats with MPC stock drums is pathetic.

I'm happy this got brought up because I'm curious if my last beat seems to fit in with the Lo-Fi aesthetic, because my vocalist is ghetto as shit and wouldn't be able to fit it. Tell me what you think, I'll keep/scrap it accordingly:

soundcloud.com/yunghoneydew/from-the-hands-of-god

Also, does this just sound like a blatant J Dilla rip? I feel like it's nearly unavoidable when it comes to simple loop based instrumentals:

soundcloud.com/yunghoneydew/aggressive

why do theyc all it that. its not even lo-fi, thats the thing that gets me

it unironically is great study music though, if it was particularly interesting it wouldn't be

I'm sick of sampling altogether. Lowers the barrier of entry so much and you end up will all those shitty bandwagon soundcloud kids like you mentioned

Idk man, I think that when a genre of music touches our heart during a specific timeframe we'll overlook most of the criticisms that we would give to a genre that doesn't, like imitation between artists of a same genre which is pretty much true for every genre.

I'd say the target audience is more "15-year-old stoners who watched Spirited Away once"

blame adult swim

that's really good actually, especially the second one

Completely agree. It's one of the laziest and most boring genres full of musical incompetents (like vaporwave/future funk). Full of people biting the originators; fucking Dilla and Nujabes are fidget spinning in their graves. It's gotten to the point where they're just all copying each other now like derivatives of derivatives of derivatives. Titles all in lowercase lykedis with names like [adltswmbmps] and either some 80s "retro" anime pic taken from google images or DBZ. Shitty boring jazz sample that's already been sampled by much more competent artists with a shitty drum pattern/looped break slapped on top. It is so overwhelmingly mediocre and generic now that I actually suspect it's all made by a single guy with hundreds of different aliases. It's almost as bad as vaporwave for fuck's sake and don't even get me started on the fucking vaporwave/lo-fi beats crossover fucklords.

I only bother with the OGs and a handful of newer guys who do some interesting stuff. The genre is so oversaturated and the bar is so low now that trying to find new music/beatmakers isn't worth the time or effort. Fuck these adult swim fetishist SC [beatmakers.] for practically ruining the genre.

Because a lot of the stuff that started it was legitimately lo-fi due to the hardware limitations the producers had to work with as well as the lower fidelity of old records they sampled, bouncing to cassette tape, etc. Nowadays though, it's because these shitters don't know how to properly mix audio and because it's "aesthetic" and "sounds cool" when you twist some knobs on an SP-404.

It's an interesting thing, because it manifested out of the internet. Also like the DIY feel that some of the good ones have. And in a way it ties into the vapourwave/lo-fi house meme's. But yeah, it's also very very shallow...

it sound pretty LO-FI but enjoyable whatsoever

good shit user

I'm just wondering why "lofi hip-hop to study/relax to 24 hour stream" wont leave my recommended page on Youtube. I don't even listen to lofi hip-hop.

Yeah, artists who share a genre will most likely share certain elements, of course, but the artists in this movement are almost completely indistinguishable from each other. For example, if you were blindfolded and someone played a couple of songs by different "lofi hiphop" artists, would you be able to tell them which artists made each one?
Also, considering that most of this music is comprised of previously made music that's then put over hip hop drums, is it really the beat that touched your heart, or was it the song they included in the beat?

People have been making beats like this for a LONG time. The meme has only spawned from the internet due to platforms that provide easy access/entry and distribution along with systems that aggregate it so it's easy to find people to bite and copy. Back in the "myspace era" there were lots of guys experimenting with the instrumental hip-hop sound, but they all had fairly unique styles because it wasn't all centralized and aggregated on a place like soundcloud. The problems we hear with "lo-fi beats" is the same for every popular SC genre (e.g., future funk, vaporwave, future bass, """"""""""kawaii bass"""""""""", trap, dubstep, EDM in general, etc.). It's a consequence of the medium/platform.

>would you be able to tell them which artists made each one?
I only listen to people who have a very distinctive sound. If a guy sounds like the next guy, their music is effectively a worthless schtick IMO. There are some guys out there who so many people try to copy, but who can never get it right because that's just not how it works. Those are the people worth listening to.

Of course there's a couple of guys in there who really do try something and different and have their own spin on it, but would you agree that those guys are VASTLY outnumbered by the previously mentioned dilla/nujabes wannabes?

You're spot on for the most part. As far as sound is concerned, there's definitely the feeling of sameness. I'd say that's due in part to the production process not being very creative in the sense of individualizing themselves.

A sound unique and specific to their own artistic identities is very much lacking in the genre. I believe as far as "great albums" are concerned, there are a few that stand out to me from all the bullshit.

Though not entirely tied to strictly hip hop, I love the variety presented in this.
pstmdrn.bandcamp.com/album/-

Underrated lo-fi hip hop record. The sound and feelings encapsulated in each beat reminds me of why lo-fi hip hop appealing to me in the first place. Filtered sound, reminiscence of 90's east coast vibes, a feeling of adolescence thrown in.
coryayo.bandcamp.com/album/blue-world

This guy is one of my personal favorites from the blandness that accompanies lo-fi hip hop sometimes. Fantastic reworkings of 90's and 2000's hip hop / r&b tracks, beatboxbandit shows off a great ear and creative mix of known samples.
cosmic-compositions.bandcamp.com/album/new-language

Yeah of course I agree. It's a dead genre and has been dead for years now. Beyond the handful of originators it's nothing but incompetent biters. Whenever I see the same tired shit aesthetic, I reflexively avoid it. I feel especially strong about it because I make beats myself; the line between talented artists who inspire and the deluge of boring bullshit is drawn thick. I find myself hating certain beatmakers before I even listen to their music based on name/aesthetic and cover art alone.

I mean. Isn't it suppose to be background music anyways?
I don't see the problem with that.

There does seem to be a disproportionate amount of this stuff coming out lately, but that doesnt mean the genre itself needs to end. Its really difficult finding good bands in any genre, but theres always that diamond in the rough that makes you grateful you didnt give up on it.

I think there are two directions people can go in which is to either make new/different/experimental stuff, or make more similar/generic stuff but make it really WELL. Unfortunately most of the lo-fi beats shit fails in both regards.

I like the stuff you posted though, especially the beatboxbandit and pstmdrn. It sounds "different" for lack of a better term.

True, I remember that stuff from like the 2000's.
Maybe you're right. Just trying to say that I appreciated the movement as sort of a 'punk' or anti-pop thing. Then again, SC got ruined by the wave of wannabe's and spammers long ago. And this seems to be a manifestation of that, witch I think is still interesting in it's own right.

Because Youtube recommendations that's why

idk I stopped listening to hip hop around 2003

>what is subjectivity

What is this?

There's only one song that I've heard from this that was good, youtube.com/watch?v=lEB54soL7dQ and it's fucking library music. This is in like, every other buzzfeed video. Terrible genre. The only album that's ever been a generally big deal was Tomppabeats Harbor LP, but this music is designed to be forgettable.
Also >>>/soundcloud/

Serious thanks for the well thought out response user.

Lofi music is analog recorded cassette music like Ariel pink and r stevie moore

Lofi "hip hop" is digitally produced trash

Stop fucking normiefying the term

This. I don't understand what's lo-fi about literally any of these beats

just you. i've been waiting for the proliferation of this sound for like 10 years and now its here.

>Just trying to say that I appreciated the movement as sort of a 'punk' or anti-pop thing.
Yeah I think there was definitely an underground appeal and a lot of potential in the scene. A lot of the original guys blew up thanks to RBMA and getting signed to major indie labels (e.g., Stones Throw). However, the "LA beat scene" thing subsided and everyone went in separate directions. I think a lot of them still keep it real and do their thing locally. It just so happened that in the meantime on the internet, a whole torrent of kids who grew up watching adult swim discovered this stuff and decided en masse to try making it (read: rip it off) themselves. As a result you have two "trends" where the older group just does their own thing as they always have and another newer one that spends its time imitating, appropriating, and circlejerking everything around it. The "aesthetic" is usually the dead-giveaway in my opinion. It's very similar to vaporwave in that way. People with very little knowledge of the history of the form or ties to community or anything of the sort churning out generic garbage because it's popular and because they can. Consequently, the critical angle and creative edge of it has been blunted to nothing--reduced to "background study music." It's a fucking shame because the albums and artists that set the standard for the genre are anything but.

I enjoy it

echopork.bandcamp.com

comfy feel good kinome desu

It's the most derivative, shitty music I've seen blow up in a while. And of course it's youtube-core, every vlogger uses it. I'm not even mad, just a little stunned that people would gravitate towards such bland crap. I think it's a combination of the whole "dude it has anime in the youtube video, it has to be cool" thing, pure ignorance of electronic music that is actually interesting, and the fact that youtube itself recommends the stream/tracks.

It stopped showing up in my recommended tab so I honestly couldn't care less.

It's basically a less pretentious equivalent of future funk.

I think the anons who mentioned it being popular as a result of being decent background that isn't too engaging and people who got into J Dilla/Nujabes/Madlib/DJ Shadow/Flying Lotus/TOKiMONSTA/etc and even some stuff like Tycho back in the late 00s/early 2010s now being old enough to make their own music and trying to replicate their influences hit the nail on the head. I agree that the majority of it sounds 99% the same, especially since I was/am big into a lot of the artists that inspired this, but I find it so inoffensive that I don't know why so much of Sup Forums has such a violent reaction to it. I was way more annoyed with stuff like vaporwave that took itself far too seriously despite also sounding 99% like the same handful of tracks and had the whole pretentious "recycled 80s aesthetic" approach. Most internet subculture genres like vaporwave, witch house, seapunk, future funk, bubblegum bass, etc are unfortunately like this. A couple of interesting ideas repeated endlessly with some kind of visual gimmick slapped on to make it easier to identify as part of the scene.

I always thought of it as something amateurs make to practice producing as a stepping stone to something better.

In that frame, it's not that bad. I'm sure they know they're all soundclound-tier, but it's aesthetically pleasing and seems fun to make.

If anything, I would expect the proliferation of these videos to lead to more people discovering better producers.