Lo-fi, no future: nostalgic loneliness at the end of the world
On this episode, I talk about lofi beats to study/relax to as a symbol of cultural retreat and loneliness, a reaction to social trauma and young peoples' sense that there is no future. If you've ever wanted to hear about how Toonami relates to precarious labor and global ecological decline, I've got you.
Sources:
COVID-19, precarity, and loneliness: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-5922.12673
Loneliness and love in late modernity: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351133319-8/loneliness-love-late-modernity-nicholas-hookway-barbara-barbosa-neves-adrian-franklin-roger-patulny
Social Acceleration, Hartmut Rosa
Resonance, Hartmut Rosa
How Lo-Fi Beats's Nostalgic Comfort Transcended The Memes: https://www.mtv.com/news/3161785/lofi-hip-hop-beats-anxiety-livestream-meme/
Inside YouTube’s calming ‘Lofi Hip Hop Radio to Relax/Study to’ community, Kemi Alemoru: https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/40366/1/youtube-lo-fi-hip-hop-study-relax-24-7-livestream-scene
25 Microgenres That (Briefly) Defined the Last 25 Years, Philip Sherburne: https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/microgenres-25th-anniversary/
Keith Rhee, Cowboy Bebop review: https://web.archive.org/web/20120918005603/http://www.ex.org/3.4/23-anime_bebop.html
Steve M., Who is Nujabes? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWXr6AXtiRw
Lofi Girl: https://www.youtube.com/c/LofiGirl
Syros: https://www.youtube.com/c/syrosmusic
Precarious Japan, Anne Allison
Most Americans Are Lonely, And Our Workplace Culture May Not Be Helping, Elena Renken: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/23/798676465/most-americans-are-lonely-and-our-workplace-culture-may-not-be-helping
The global pandemic has deepened an epidemic of loneliness in America, Alison Cashin: https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/loneliness-in-america
CNN report on hikikomori: https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/11/asia/japanese-millennials-hikikomori-social-recluse/index.html
The State of Gig Work in 2021, Monica Anderson, Colleen McClain, Michelle Faverio and Risa Gelles-Watnick: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/12/08/the-state-of-gig-work-in-2021/
Lo-fi beats to quarantine to are booming on YouTube, Julia Alexander: https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/20/21222294/lofi-chillhop-youtube-productivity-community-views-subscribers
Babbling Corpses, Grafton Tanner
Narratives of Loneliness, Multidisciplinary Perspectives from the 21st Century, Olivia Sagan, Eric Miller
