Lo-fi music
lastmod 2025-07-07created 2025-07-071 edits
Lo-Fi is music or a musical quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections of the recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate aesthetic choice. Standards of sound quality and music production have evolved over the decades, which means some older examples of Lo-Fi may not originally have been perceived as such.
Lo-Fi emerged in the United States in the 1980s as the opposite of Hi-Fi music, and began to be recognized as a style of popular music in the 1990s, also called DIY music. The Lo-Fi aesthetic is defined by including elements regarded as undesirable in professional contexts, such as misplayed notes or phonographic imperfections (tape hiss, etc.).
See also
- Music
- Cloud rap
- Noise pop
- Noise reduction
- Noise rock
- Skiffle