Basically trip hop for people who missed out on or are too young for trip hop.
Nujabes, Massive Attack, Portishead, Unkle, Little Dragon, and many more great artists/bands that all have produced albums and songs that could be described as lofi, often find their work in lofi mixes.
"Lofi" as it is understood nowadays is more about background music that aims not to be distracting when working/studying. Basically lofi == "lofi (to study to)".
Trip-hop like Portishead does it, while it is "low fidelity" (as in it uses warm tones, crackling, record scratching, etc), it is not lofi, in the same way that Sabaton is Rock but not Rock&Roll.
Wow, I never thought I was so old as to be out of touch. To me, “lo-fi” without the “lo-fi hip hop” specification is really, like, rock/indie rock, but literally with lo-fidelity recording. It’s like a punk practice that was put into use for rock or indie rock, sometime in the early-to-late 2000s.
Think early white stripes, the growlers (their first album or so anyway), king khan & the BBQ show, maybe The Babies could fit into this category.
But “lofi beats”/“lofi hip hop” is a separate designation. But it needs the “hip hop” modifier because “lo-fi” existed before the YouTube playlist of simple, relaxing beats to study to thing.
So, I guess what I’m saying is, “these damn kids don’t know what lofi even is anymore. With their YouTubes and their handheld nintendos—dress them up all you want! I know a game boy when I see one!”
I imagine doing homework undistracted while Unkle's Warstories or Portishead's Dummy are playing. Or how DJ Shadow would fit on the same shelf as this one tired anime girl with her studying hip-hop beats. It's a bit of a stretch to put them together, if not for a dozen of neutral songs in their discographies.
If it makes you feel any better, I was telling someone about an album I found that came out in the 70s and I had to say it was "proto vaporwave" before they understood what I meant lol
What is [F4M]Mommy Works the Stress Out Of Her Good Boy[Gentle Fdom][Msub][Mommy][BDSM][Established Relationship][Kissing][Body Admiration][“Good Boy”][Wet Sounds][Pre-Cum][Blindfold][JOE][Praise][Edging][Cock Kisses][Teasing][Encouragement][Hand Job][Consent][L-Bomb][Listener Orgasm][Script Fill] of the past?
Easy listening in my experience is production music for lobbies and non-spaces (places we go through but don't exist in, like luggage claim areas). It's part of the social science of keeping people calm when they have the stressor of not being where they want to be or are supposed to be.
LoFi in more recent experiences are similar -- music you can study to, or research to, or otherwise focus on other tasks -- but are usually qualified by being also part of another genre (say metal, or classical or blues or retrocore or cyberpunk).
These lofi mixes on YouTube are essentially trip-hop. Lofi (also called DIY music) is low fidelity music made by indie artists in their bedroom, also sometimes called bedroom pop.
But IDK about studying with it. They definitely have some pieces that work (e.g. most of Sunset Mission), but a lot of their stuff combines being extremely slow with kinda loud drum hits, which can be kind of distracting IMO. Like, you're listening to some sweet chord ring out, and after a couple of seconds the snare goes TCHACK.