Ready, Set, Chill – Lo-Fi Music & Why We Love Chill Beats To Work

Studio Ghibli Lo-fi cover

Slow tempo, lack of words and a pensive looking anime cover. Mix all these together and you’ve got lo-fi music, the perfect work buddy. Read below to chill.

Lo-fi music & chill out beats

In a previous article about why jazz is so relaxing, we now have lo-fi music jumping on the bandwagon of chill out beats. 

With YouTube channels dedicated to streaming beats to thousands of followers, the genre has blown up. Following this success of lo-fi beats on YouTube, multiple playlists then began popping up on platforms like Spotify and Soundcloud. 

So, if you’re stressed out, have an exam coming up or have some work to do, here are some points for why this genre might help you out. 

What makes a lo-fi beat?
What makes a lo-fi beat?

Ingredients for lo-fi beats

Perfect for stressed out students, lo-fi is great to work to as it regulates your mood through it’s relatively slow tempo. As you ease into the beats and relax, this instantly has a positive effect on your cognition. Mash all these effects up and you’ll notice the positive effects on your productivity. 

Lo-fi’s slow tempo is thanks to the samples it takes from jazz. The repetition of bars of piano and strings from jazz samples helps focus your attention. With it’s lack of words you’re also less distracted as lyrics tend to mix you up as you read or write. 

Besides the motion and rhythm jazz offers, hip-hop also finds itself contributing to lo-fi beats. Some tracks have that slow and steady beat found in hip-hop songs. However the type of hip-hop influencing lo-fi would be that type based more on styles as jazz and blues. 

Studio Ghibli looking anime
Studio Ghibli looking anime

Cover art

If you’re listening to lo-fi music on YouTube one added bonus is the cover art. Each video is normally paired with some Studio Ghibli looking anime cover. 

Most videos have nostalgic looking visuals that are looped every few seconds. With images related to nature, children, or cartoons the videos will throw you down memory lane.  

A perfect example of this is the famously liked 2.4 million lo-fi video by Chilled Cow.

The infinite loop of an anime girl taking down notes in her room might remind you of your childhood again. You’d think back to your childhood bedroom back home, with all your favourite things in your room. All this gives you a fuzzy feeling wanting to keep watching and listening.

Where to find lo-fi beats? 

Lo-fi’s community on YouTube is a great place to start.

With 6.13 million subscribers ChilledCow is one of the most iconic channels for the genre out there. It’s variety of live streams, playlists and compilations is perfect if you’re looking for the perfect mix to listen to. 

Here’s one of it’s videos you can start out with:

YouTube channels have a greater advantage as they have a live chat tool as the side. Here the lo-fi community continues to grow as people send out messages to each other. It’s nearly as if you have a large group of people working or chilling out. 

If you’re not a fan of YouTube then you can find ChilledCow’s lo-fi tunes on Spotify too. 

What’s great about the lo-fi community is that there is an endless amount of beats to chill and relax to.

So, if you’re interested to keep listening here’s another Spotify page to get you into the community:

Written by Nina Borg Nicolas

Nina Borg Nicolas is a content writer focused on local events in Malta, subculture and the arts.

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