Chill-out music

Chill-out (shortened as chill; also typeset as chillout or chill out) is a loosely defined form of popular music characterized by slow tempos and relaxed moods.[1][2] The definition of "chill-out music" has evolved throughout the decades, and generally refers to anything that might be identified as a modern type of easy listening. Some of the genres associated with "chill" include downtempo, classical, dance, jazz, hip hop, world, pop, lounge, and ambient.

"Chill out" redirects here. For other uses, see Chill out (disambiguation).

The term "chill-out music" – originally conflated with "ambient house" – came from an area called "The White Room" at the Heaven nightclub in London in 1989. There, DJs played ambient mixes from sources such as Brian Eno and Pink Floyd to allow dancers a place to "chill out" from the faster-paced music of the main dance floor. Ambient house became widely popular over the next decade before it declined due to market saturation.

In the early 2000s, DJs in Ibiza's Café Del Mar began creating ambient house mixes that drew on jazz, classical, Hispanic, and New Age sources. The popularity of chill-out subsequently expanded to dedicated satellite radio channels, outdoor festivals, and thousands of compilation albums. "Chill-out" was also removed from its ambient origins and became its own distinct genre.

"Chillwave" was an ironic term coined in 2009 for music that could already be described with existing labels such as dream pop.[3] Despite the facetious intent behind the term, chillwave was the subject of serious, analytical articles by mainstream newspapers, and became one of the first genres to acquire an identity online. As on-demand music streaming services grew in the 2010s, a form of downtempo tagged as "lo-fi hip hop" or "chillhop" became popular among YouTube users.

Origins and definition

There is no exact definition of chill-out music.[1][4] The term, which has evolved throughout the decades, generally refers to anything that might be identified as a modern type of easy listening. Some of the genres associated with "chill" include downtempo, classical, dance, jazz, hip hop, world, pop, lounge, and ambient.[1] Chill-out typically has slow rhythms, sampling, a "trance-like nature", "drop-out beats", and a mixture of electronic instruments with acoustic instruments. In the "Ambient/Chill Out" chapter of Rick Snoman's 2013 book Dance Music Manual, he writes, "it could be said that as long as the tempo remains below 120 BPM and it employs a laid-back groove, it could be classed as chill out."[4]

The Orb performing in 2006

The term originated from an area called "The White Room" at the Heaven nightclub in London in 1989.[5] Its DJs were Jimmy Cauty and Alex Patterson, later of the Orb.[6] They created ambient mixes from sources such as Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, the Eagles, Mike Oldfield, 10cc, and War. The room's purpose was to allow dancers a chance to "chill out" from the more emphatic and fast-tempo music played on the main dance floor. This also coincided with the short-lived fad of ambient house, also known as "New Age house". Cauty's KLF subsequently released an album called Chill Out (February 1990), featuring uncredited contributions from Patterson.[5] In addition, during the early 1990s, the Beach Boys' Smiley Smile (1967) was reputed as one of the best "chill-out" albums to listen to during an LSD comedown.[7]

Ambient house declined after the mid-1990s due to market saturation.[8] In the early 2000s, DJs in Ibiza's Café Del Mar began creating ambient house mixes that drew on jazz, classical, Hispanic, and New Age sources. They called their product "chill-out music", and it sparked a revived interest in ambient house from the public and record labels.[8] The popularity of chill-out subsequently expanded to dedicated satellite radio channels, outdoor festivals, and the release of thousands of compilation albums offering ambient sounds and "muffled" beats.[1] Consequently, the popular understanding of "chill-out music" shifted away from "ambient" and into its own distinct genre.[8] Music critics to that point were generally dismissive of the music.[1]

Chillwave

In 2009, a genre called "chillwave" was invented by the satirical blog Hipster Runoff for music that could already be described with existing labels such as dream pop.[9] The pseudonymous author, known as "Carles", later explained that he was only "[throwing] a bunch of pretty silly names on a blog post and saw which one stuck."[10] Chillwave became one of the first genres to acquire an identity online,[11] although the term did not gain mainstream currency until early 2010, when it was the subject of serious, analytical articles by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.[12] In 2011, Carles said it was "ridiculous that any sort of press took it seriously" and that although the bands he spoke to "get annoyed" by the tag, "they understand that it's been a good thing. What about iTunes making it an official genre? It's now theoretically a marketable indie sound."[10]

Streaming

Spotify playlists

Streaming became the dominant source of music industry revenue in 2016.[13] During that decade, Spotify engendered a trend that became known among the industry as "lean back listening", which refers to a listener who "thinks less about the artist or album they are seeking out, and instead connects with emotions, moods and activities". As of 2017, the front page of the service's "browse" screen included many algorithmically-selected playlists with names such as "Chilled Folk", "Chill Hits", "Evening Chill", "Chilled R&B", "Indie Chillout", and "Chill Tracks".[14] In 2014, the service reported that throughout the year "Chill Out" playlists had trended much higher than the national average on campuses across Colorado, where marijuana had been legalized in January of that year.[15] In an editorial piece for The Baffler titled "The Problem with Muzak", writer Liz Pelly criticized the "chill" playlists as "the purest distillation of [Spotify's] ambition to turn all music into emotional wallpaper".[14]

Lo-fi hip hop
"Lo-fi hip hop" redirects here. For the genre of jazz-influenced hip-hop, see Jazz rap. For the genres of hip-hop characterized by low sound quality, see Mumble rap, Memphis rap, and Cloud rap.

In 2013, YouTube began allowing its users to host live streams, which resulted in a host of 24-hour "radio stations" dedicated to microgenres such as vaporwave,[16] a derivation of chillwave.[17] In 2017, a form of downtempo music tagged as "lo-fi hip hop" or "chillhop" became popular among YouTube music streamers. By 2018, several of these channels had attracted millions of followers. One DJ, Ryan Celsius, theorized that they were inspired by a nostalgia for the commercial bumpers used by Toonami and Adult Swim in the 2000s, and that this "created a cross section of people that enjoyed both anime and wavy hip-hop beats."[18]

Nujabes and J Dilla have been referred to as the "godfathers of Lo-Fi Hip Hop".[19] In Vice writer Luke Winkie credited YouTube user ChilledCow as "the person who first featured a studious anime girl as his calling card, which set up the aesthetic framework for the rest of the people operating in the genre" and suggested that "if there is one shared touchstone for lo-fi hip-hop, it's probably [the 2004 MF Doom and Madlib album] Madvillainy".[18]

The root word "lo-fi" refers to music of an unprofessional nature, and contrary to popular conception, is not synonymous with qualities such as "warm" and "punchy".[20]

Lo-fi hip hop YouTube creators including Chillhop Records and ChilledCow have faced issues such as copyright strikes and YouTube bans. In February 2018, Chillhop Records received a copyright strike from anime house Studio Shizu for the use of a character from the feature film, Wolf Children. Though Chillhop Records only used a five-second loop of one character, the popularity of the video caught the attention of Studio Shizu. The founder of Chillhop Records and owner of the YouTube channel, Bas Van Leeuwen told the gaming magazine, Polygon, that the company worked with Studio Shizu in order to bring the livestream back on.[21] ChilledCow received another notice from YouTube, in February 2020, detailing that the channel had violated YouTube’s Terms of Service.[22] According to The Fader, soon after the shutdown of ChilledCow’s channel, a large influx of support from fans of the longstanding lo-fi curator was recognized as the reason why the popular lo-fi hip hop livestream was resumed after the mishap.[23]

In early 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, MTV News noted, "there might be something to be said for lo-fi hip-hop’s composition, and the way its creators mix simplistic melodies with a judicious use of words to create intense memories, feelings, and nostalgia" and stated that the quarantine in place in various countries "has led people to log more hours online due to boredom or virtual workplaces and schools, and livestreamed music performances are reaching their full potential."[24]

See also

References
  1. Rosen, Jody (June 7, 2005). "The Musical Genre That Will Save the World". Slate.
  2. Snoman, Rick (2013). Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys, and Techniques. Taylor & Francis. pp. 88, 340–342. ISBN 1136115749. Retrieved 17 May 2014.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  3. How Chillwave’s Brief Moment in the Sun Cast a Long Shadow Over the 2010s|Pitchfork
  4. Snoman 2013, p. 331.
  5. Reynolds, Simon (2012). Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture. Soft Skull Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-1-59376-477-7.
  6. Partridge, Christopher; Moberg, Marcus (2017). The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Popular Music. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 429. ISBN 978-1-4742-3734-5.
  7. Kent, Nick (2009). "The Last Beach Movie Revisited: The Life of Brian Wilson". The Dark Stuff: Selected Writings on Rock Music. Da Capo Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-7867-3074-2.
  8. Snoman 2013, p. 330.
  9. Schilling, Dave (April 8, 2015). "That Was a Thing: The Brief History of the Totally Made-Up Chillwave Music Genre".
  10. Cheshire, Tom (March 30, 2011). "Invent a new genre: Hipster Runoff's Carles explains 'chillwave'". The Wired.
  11. Scherer, James (October 26, 2016). "Great artists steal: An interview with Neon Indian's Alan Palomo". Smile Politely.
  12. Vulture's Brief History of Chillwave
  13. Rosenblatt, Bill (April 8, 2018). "In Music's New Era, Streaming Rules, But Human Factors Endure". Forbes. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  14. Pelly, Liz (2017). "The Problem with Muzak". The Baffler.
  15. "Year in Music 2014". Spotify.
  16. Alemoru, Kemi (June 14, 2018). "Inside YouTube's calming 'Lofi Hip Hop Radio to Relax/Study to' community". Dazed Digital.
  17. Coleman, Jonny (May 1, 2015). "Quiz: Is This A Real Genre". Pitchfork.
  18. Winkie, Luke (July 13, 2018). "How 'Lofi Hip Hop Radio to Relax/Study to' Became a YouTube Phenomenon". Vice. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
  19. Cortez, Kevin (April 24, 2018). "YouTube & Chill: A Glimpse Into The World Of Lo-Fi Hip Hop". Genius.
  20. Carew, Anthony (March 8, 2017). "Genre Profile - Lo-Fi". ThoughtCo.
  21. Alexander, Julia. "YouTube's Most Popular 'Lofi Hip Hop' Livestream May Return Soon". Polygon.
  22. Tesema, Feleg. "YouTube Blocked 'Lofi Hip Hop Radio' & Twitter Lost It". Highsnobiety. Highsnobiety. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  23. Darville, Jordan. "Lofi Hip Hop Radio - Beats to Relax/Study to' Returns to YouTube after Brief Ban". THE FADER.
  24. Mlnarik, Carson (April 1, 2020). "How Lo-Fi Beats's Nostalgic Comfort Transcended The Memes". MTV News. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
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