Lofi Girl (formerly ChilledCow until 2021) is a French YouTube channel and music label established in 2017. It provides livestreams of lo-fi hip hop music 24/7, accompanied by a Japanese-style animation of a girl studying or relaxing in her bedroom with a cat on the window.
Format
The channel offers several videos and livestreams of lo-fi music in hip hop style.[1] The best known video is a live stream of lo-fi music that has run for several years.
The music is either released through the ChilledCow label, or used with permission from the artist.[2]
The music is always live, preventing YouTube from putting ads that could cut the stream.[3]
The playlist is updated fairly frequently.[4] The music broadcast by the channel can be used to practice "deep work".[5][6][7] According to Emma Winston of the University of London, the success of the channel comes from the music that "seems familiar to the listener, like a past time gone and fantasized that did not really exist".[8]
Fareid El Gafy writes in the Washington Square News, "Thanks to this playlist, I've cranked out a multitude of essays, study sessions, scripts and rough cuts to the tune of pop culture samples, muted snares and artificial record scratches."[9]
Lee Taber, Leya Breanna Baltaxe-Admony and Kevin Weatherwax of the University of California, Santa Cruz, showed in a study that parasocial interactions can be applied to characters such as the Lofi Girl.[10]
Mascot
Lofi Girl streams are accompanied by an animation of a girl studying or relaxing who has come to be known as the Lofi Girl, the Lofi Study Girl, or the "24/7 lofi hip hop beats" girl (officially named Jade[11]). The channel began using the Lofi Girl for its streams in March 2018.
Creator Dimitri Somoguy originally used the character Shizuku Tsukishima from the Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart (1995) as the face of the channel, with footage of her studying or writing used in the streams. When the popularity of the streams ultimately led to the channel being taken down for copyright violations, Somoguy decided to maintain the Ghibli-esque aesthetic but with an original character and put out a call for artists.
One of the artists who responded was Juan Pablo Machado. Originally from Colombia, Machado moved to Lyon in 2013 to study at the École Émile-Cohl, after a stint at the art school of Bogotá. In September 2018, during his last year of his master's degree, he decided to respond to a call for tenders received by his school.[12] The tender from ChilledCow called for a "student busy revising for her classes, with Miyazaki
History
Creation and initial suspensions
The YouTube channel "ChilledCow" was created by Dimitri Somoguy[16][17] on 18 March 2015.[18] ChilledCow began streaming lo-fi hip hop music, branding it as relaxation music for those who are working or studying on 25 February 2017.[19][20]
The live stream was taken down by YouTube between July and August 2017 for using footage of the character Shizuku Tsukishima studying from the animated film Whisper of the Heart (1995).
Juan Pablo Machado
Juan Pablo Machado is a Colombian-French artist best known for his animation work on the channel. Machado is originally from Cali, Colombia.[39] After a stint at an art school in Bogotá, he moved to Lyon in 2013 to study at the École Émile-Cohl.[40] He left the École Émile-Cohl in 2018.[41] In 2017, during his final year of study, he decided to respond to a call for artists received by his school.[42][43][44] The call came from the channel.[45]
Other projects
Synthwave channel launch
On 11 April 2023, the channel launched a third live stream, "synthwave radio 🌌 - beats to chill/game to", featuring a boy with his pet dog next to him sitting in front of a desktop computer. The extensive teaser campaign accompanied the stream's launch: On 10 April 2023, the animation of the Lofi Girl and her cat disappeared. The audio music stream continued with a still visual background, but without record and track labels. Over the course of 24 hours, the video slowly zoomed in towards the open blue window. On 11 April at 5:00 pm UTC, the blue room could be clearly seen, and a new character entered with a small dog and began typing at a computer. The community dubbed the unnamed boy, "Synthwave Boy", "Synth Boy" or just "Lofi Boy".[50][51][52][22] The following day, Lofi Girl's YouTube channel uploaded the character's entry animation with the title "Synthwave Launch 🌌 - Lofi Boy POV",[53]
Viewership
In February 2020, the main live "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to" was viewed 218 million times,[89] and in July 2022 more than 668 million.[90] In 2023, an average of 40,000 people are connected every day at the same time.[1]
In 2024, the channel is among the 10 most watched channels in France[91] and the main live "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to" is considered by the Nouvel Observateur as one of the "20 [videos] that have marked the platform."[92]
Reception and cultural impact
Lofi Girl's viewership has since been released to acclaim and developed ever since the beginning of the live stream.[19] Fareid El Gafy from Washington Square News praised the live stream about studying, saying "Thanks to this playlist, I've cranked out a multitude of essays, study sessions, scripts and rough cuts to the tune of pop culture samples, muted snares and artificial record scratches."[20] Xavier Piedra of Mashable praised it for its relaxing songs that keep the listener focused. He also noted that the playlist is updated frequently and often contains a mixture of old and newly added songs.[93] The live stream was the first live stream listed on Cassidy Quinn of KGW's "Top 10 non-news live channels to watch on YouTube while social distancing". Quinn described the songs in the live stream as "a constant stream of low-key music you play in the background while you get work done, do chores, whatever you're doing at home right now".[94] ChilledCow's lofi hip-hop playlist was also named the best lo-fi beats playlist by Red Bull
External links
References
- Lofi girl : votre compagne de télétravail, star de YouTube - Le Dessous des images - ARTE 20 October 2023, retrieved 9 December 2023^
- Qui est Lofi Girl, cette star virtuelle française de Youtube ? France Inter, 13 April 2023, retrieved 9 December 2023^
- Jean-Yves Alric. Ils écoutent de la musique en boucle sur YouTube pour mieux se concentrer