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