Who is LoFi Girl?
Everyone has their own preferred type of passive entertainment to absorb while they work or study. Some people love to listen to podcasts, some watch YouTube videos in the background on their desktop, but most people listen to music.
If you search the “Focus” section on Spotify’s playlists, you’ll see hundreds of public playlists spanning different genres: Jazz, Acoustic, Brown Noise, Classical, Sounds of the Ocean, and much, much more.
One of the most popular playlists or genres of Focus music is what’s called “Lofi Beats.” Lofi, short for “low-fidelity” is a type of music or production quality in which imperfect elements are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. Although "lo-fi" has been in the cultural lexicon since 1986, in the late 2000s, lo-fi aesthetics served as the basis of the chillwave and hypnagogic pop music genres, and exploded in bedroom pop (aka DIY music).
Lofi Beats is so popular for studying and working because of its typically slowed-down tempo, consistent and clear electronic drumbeats, and overall relaxing feel. Because of the “lo-fi” element, acoustic distortion and noise are often present, giving the music that nice crackly, warm feeling that can be hard to find in typical electronic music.
If you’ve spent any time online in the last 5 years, you’ve probably seen this image of a Studio Ghibli-esque girl with brown hair and headphones, sitting at a desk in front of a window.
Her surroundings sometimes change, snow sometimes falls outside her window, but she stays ever-focused on her work in front of her.
Her name is Lofi Girl, and she is the face of the popular French YouTube channel and music label established in 2017. It provides livestreams of lo-fi hip hop music 24/7, accompanied by the Japanese-style animation of a girl studying or relaxing.
Lofi Girl started as relaxation music for reading or studying by “ChilledCow” in 2017 on YouTube. Since then, the channel has exploded in popularity and on February 2nd 2022, the channel reached ten million subscribers. The stream that was on at the time had been running since February 2020, and had over seven million likes.
Right now, the channel has 13.3 million subscribers and over 1.6 billion total views. If you check it out at this exact moment (bookmark the tab you’re reading this article in!), you’ll no doubt see the live chat rolling with new messages and red hearts popping and flying up the screen.
After her debut, Lofi Girl quickly went viral, showing up in memes and pop culture. In Steven Universe Future, the character Connie is depicted studying in the same pose and environment as the Lofi. In September 2020, a trend started on Reddit whereby the Lofi Girl would be redrawn to match the context of a certain country or place. Will Smith has also published his own version, replacing the study girl with Smith wearing a Bel-Air hoodie.
You can (obviously) subscribe to the channel, follow her on social media, join her Reddit or discord, and even become a “Lofi Ambassador.” And of course, she’s got her own merch, just in case you want to get your hands on her trademark cozy sweatshirt or backpack.
So next time you’re setting up your desk to finalize your presentation, or digging into that textbook on Organic Chemistry, you might want to give Lofi Girl a chance. You never know where that precious Focus time will take you.