the science behind lofi music

(Transcribed by Sonix.ai - Remove this message by upgrading your Sonix account)
My GPA went from a 3.0 to a 3.9 for the year.

I started listening to Lo-Fi to figure out if
there's any causation behind that

correlation. I tried to teach an AI to
generate the ideal study music.

I feel like you could listen to it if the
volume was at like one,

and then you walked away and you listened to
different music.

Please don't release it.

Let me explain. Thank you to The Great
Courses Plus for sponsoring this video.

When it comes down to focus,
I have two modes.

I either start a task,
blink, and suddenly it's six hours later and

I skip two meals, or I surround myself with a
controlled level of distraction.

What are you doing? I'm focusing.

That was until I found lo-fi hip-hop chill
beats to study/relax to sparkle emoji.

The titles are a bit much,
but you know what? I'm talking about,

this girl. Anyway, I started listening to it
back in 2018 and I saw my GPA just [explosion

sound] and sure, there are several reasons as
to why that could have happened,

but Lo-Fi music definitely makes me feel like
I'm better at focusing.

Not every song, some slap a little too hard
and pull me right out of the zone,

but there is a sweet spot.

So today in this video,
you and I are going to figure out why Lo-Fi

Hip Hop might help you focus.

And if we can teach an AI to generate the
perfect mix.

So I started my research by looking into the
history of Lo-Fi Hip hop.

After that, I got a bit more familiar with
other experiments people have done with

machine learning to generate new music,
and I've got two big takeaways from my

initial readings. The first has to do with
the structure of Lo-Fi Hip Hop.

Its iconic sound is composed of three parts.

The first, a jazzy instrumental,
the second,

a drum beat combo of bass and snares called
Boom BAP.

It's played intentionally off kilter in a
style pioneered by the producer and rapper J

Dilla. And finally, intentional environmental
noise that leans even further into the

imperfections that define the genre.

It usually plays at around 70 to 95 beats per
minute and falls within this range of

frequencies. And that gives me a few key
characteristics to look into when trying to

figure out why Lo-Fi can help people focus,
but it also leads to a second thing.

It's an ingredient list and recipe for the
things I need to teach my machine.

Here's the plan. Okay,
here's how I'm gonna make music with a

machine. Step one I need a bunch of
instrumental and drum midis.

These are basically files that contain
information about the note that's played, how

long it's played, a bunch of other stuff.

I don't know much about it.

I'm an amateur. Step two.

I'm gonna sacrifice it to the machine. I'm
going to be using an LSTM.

So basically you have a sequence of notes.
And then the next step in the sequence you

tell the machine, "hey,
get really good at guessing what the next

step is going to be," and then it gets really
good at it.

Finally, I'm going to smash that drum and
instrumental track together with some ambient

music, and I put two step twos.

This is step three. And then profit.

Sounds easy right? It was not easy.

I spent the next week swinging between
wanting to throw my computer out a window and

wanting to throw myself out a window.

Oh my God. Oh, jeez. Oh my God.

Oh, Jesus. So it's been like three days.

My code has run fully without error for the
first time.

So as long as there's any sound,
I'm gonna be happy.

Okay, let's just play this.

I'm not happy. Okay, let's fix this.

Okay, so I think I've stopped it from just
repeating the same note.

Basically, we get caught up in this loop
where it was just like "the last note was a

C. The next note probably going to be a C,"
but then if it thinks that the if the last

note C, then the next,
it just gets caught up in this loop.

Instead it has like this short list of likely
next notes.

And then it randomly samples from that short
list.

Anyway, here's how it sounds.

That hurt my forehead.

Isn't al.

All right? That was headed to a dark place,
so I'm going on a walk to calm down.

I'm also going to do a bit of reading as to
why,

like, those specific characteristics of Lo-Fi
music might help with studying and focus.

I'm also going to collect a bit of
environmental noise for the final track.

The more I read, the more I realized that the
characteristics that make lo fi,

lo fi, that steady drumbeat,
that frequency range,

that faux vinyl crackle,
all those things work together to create a

sonic environment tuned for focus.

It's really interesting. I should warn you
that music's impact on your mind isn't

universal. It depends on the task at hand and
the type of person you are.

So if what you're doing requires a lot of
thinking,

or you're currently in a place where you're
going to get easily distracted, you should

probably hit mute. We have a limited capacity
for attention,

and music uses up some of that essential
resource.

In reality, if you want to focus,
silence is almost always the better option.

However, background music can provide two key
benefits.

So here's how Lo-Fi can help you focus.

First, it can block out more intrusive noises
by forming an aural cocoon that tunes out or

reduces distractions,
by anchoring them to a predictable rhythm.

Second, it can serve as a stimulant.

Songs that vibe in the fine line between
putting you to sleep and popping off can

improve your productivity without being too
distracting.

And that is where Lo-Fi Hip Hop comes in.

The jazzy instrumentals and drum loops are
refreshing and fun,

but slow and repetitive enough that they
become subconsciously predictable.

In addition, the dampened frequencies and
environmental noise act as a blanket that

blends the music together and pushes it into
the background using spatialization.

This makes the music sound less like a
recording,

playing directly in your ears,
and more like something in a physical space.

Finally, the genre's obsession with
comfortable,

nostalgic elements like vinyl crackle in
rainy days can help bring listeners peace and

improve their mood. All of this combines to
make certain lo fi hip hop tracks easy to

process and ideal for focus.

And with all of that in mind,
I now think that I know which parts of lo fi

I should lean into while making new tracks
and which ones I should avoid.

Now I just need to get the steaming pile of
garbage I call my code to actually function.

Let's do this. It took another two days and
just endless emotional turmoil,

but I eventually was ready for my album
release.

This might have been a bad idea.

Do you all know why you're here?

I have no idea what I'm doing here.

Apparently, this is the listening party.

Before we get to the songs,
I do have a question for you guys.

Okay. You know me pretty well.

On a scale of 1 to 10,
how musical do you think I am?

Like a three.

Which one's bad?

Zero.

Zero.

On a scale of 1 to 10.

Zero.

You didn't know who Alicia Keys was?

I was just gonna bring that up.

So I would like to present to you the music.

Which track would you guys like to listen to?

The worst one.

Yeah. Let's work our way up.

This is an anxiety machine.

This sounds like, Now,
I'm not going to compare it to any music.

That would be a disrespect to music.

So you're telling me that isn't the lo fi hip
hop beat to chill and relax to?

A little far from that.

The next one. Are you ready?

Which one would you like?

Wait. Maybe this is the worst one.

Okay.

Okay. Wait for this drop.

There is no drop.

No. Is this gonna be available in our
newsletter?

It will be.

Where can I subscribe to the newsletter?

Sabrina.

You can go to
answerinprogress.com/newsletter.

To sign up. All right. Let's go with the only
good track.

So to set the expectations this is the best I
was able to do.

Okay.

I'm nervous again actually.

Yeah that waveform is really aggressive.

Kind of minecrafty.

Very elevator music. Like I'm waiting for my
floor just past the seventh floor.

Yeah.

Now we're at the 24th floor.

That was really funny.

Damn, that elevator's real fast.

I'm gonna close my eyes.

It's getting creepier. I think the more that
I listen to it,

I'm like, I should not listen to this
anymore.

It's unsettling.

It is slightly unsettling.

However, you know, it's just like,
I don't know if it's a chill,

lo fi beat, but from listening to this,
compared to the first lo fi beat singular

that you created, this is this is a lot.

This is a lot of improvement here.

Here's what it sounds like. If I just use
like an actual drum loop designed by a human

being.

This one's good. The big question,
Taha, could you study to this?

I would definitely study to this.

I feel like I have studied to this.

How do you guys think I did?

I think you did Badly.

[Laughs]

I think that the drum loop that you got did a
lot of the heavy lifting here.

Melissa?

[Laughs]

Damn, dude. Speechless.

In fairness, it's it's pretty impressive that
you got,

like, some semblance of,
like, vibes.

Yeah. We've created a new genre of music
beats to be anxious to.

To beats to be anxious to.

Okay, so while that wasn't the hardest video
I've ever had to make,

I definitely felt like I bit off more than I
could chew.

Way more than once. It was the first time in
a while that I truly didn't know how to even

start. Every step I just felt out of my
element and I felt like there was just so

much more I needed to learn.

But even though it took way longer than
expected,

it was really nice to go from this.

To this.

This one's good.

Knowing all of the hard work that went behind
it,

and by the end, we were able to figure out
why lofi hip hop and ambient music can help

you study and also make a few decent beats of
our own.

Kind of. Okay, I'll admit it was far from
perfect,

but if we gave up because our first attempt
or our first dozen attempts weren't perfect,

we wouldn't get very far.

You know, that's just a lesson in lo fi and
in life.

I know that was a bad one,
bye.

Hey there, I hope you liked that video.

If you did, please consider sharing it with a
few friends. It is easily the biggest way you

can help this channel grow.

Another way is to stick around as I thank the
Great Courses Plus for sponsoring this video

while I turn myself into a lo fi hip hop
girl.

So I found that learning things gets a lot
harder after you leave,

like the guided learning environment of
university.

And unfortunately I don't have the time or
money to head back.

Luckily I use the Great Courses Plus.

It's a subscription on demand video learning
service with these amazing lectures and

courses from top from top professors from Ivy
League universities and experts from major

institutions. Your subscription gets you
access to over 11,000 videos covering

everything from music theory to math and
more.

I recommend music and the brain.

It explores the neuroscience of music and
what happens when melody meets the mind.

It helped me better understand the concepts
that tie Lo-Fi and focus together.

You can learn at your own pace,
at any time or any place without worrying

about tests, which is the greatest feeling in
the world.

You can get started with The Great Courses
Plus today if you head on over to

thegreatcoursesplus.com/answerinprogress.

Or you can click the first link in the
description. So get started with the Great

Courses Plus today. But either way,
have a lovely day.

It's done.

(Transcribed by Sonix.ai - Remove this message by upgrading your Sonix account)
[Music]