Exhibition Statement

Introduction

         Lo-fi Hip Hop (commonly shortened to lo-fi) is a recent genre of music that has skyrocketed in popularity over the last 10 years. The genre shares many of the same elements as the popular parent genre Hip Hop: the use of jazz chords/rhythms, instrumentation samples, and the use of loops. However, what differentiates the two comes in the production phase of the music. Effects such as distortion, excessive reverb, boosted bass eq, and eq filters are all some of the effects added to manipulate the sound of the sound of the song. These effects give the instruments and loops an underproduced, low-fidelity sound. This is the aesthetic goal and phenomenon for Lo-Fi Hip Hop artists: to produce a song that sounds underproduced. Bound with Lo-Fi Hip Hop, thanks to the progression of streaming platforms such as YouTube and Spotify, is studying. Lo-fi Hip Hop has become so synonymous with “study music” that a whole entire culture, made up primarily of college students has developed around this genre (Wang 14). But when it comes to studying, is it effective? This capstone project seeks to do a statistical analysis on the correlation between Lo-Fi study music and academic performance.

Literature Review

         In the 1990s, many researchers began exploring many of the effects of classical music on the brain. Perhaps the most popular study of them all was that from researcher Frances Rauscher in 1993 who found that listening to Mozart enhanced a participant's ability to perform spatial tasks on the Stanford-Binet IQ test. Thus the “Mozart effect” was coined from this study upon reaching the media, and though several subsequent studies provided different or inconclusive results, people have gone on with the idea that listening to classical music makes you smarter, or enhances academic performance (Jenkins, par.1).

Despite many studies with classical music, in the scholarly world of articles, there has been little to know touch on this recent phenomenon of Lo-Fi Hip Hop as a means to enhance academic performance. Thus this capstone seeks to study an understudied new genre and subject to find what correlation the results provide. 

Methods

         This Capstone seeks to measure subjects’ reading speed based on when they listen to lo-fi hip hop, compared to when they do not listen to any music, compared to when they listen to classical music. This method was selected as it proved the most efficient to analyze quantitatively. Deception was also a key element in this study. Subjects were told that they were being measured on reading comprehension so they would not speed read with no comprehension. It should also be noted that a non-probability convenience sample was used to fit the limitations of this capstone. In addition, each subject was randomly assigned into one of the three groups music groups. If a subject was in a group where music was played, the order of when the music was played was also randomized. This means that some subjects read the first excerpt in silence and the second one with music, or they read the first excerpt with music and the second excerpt in silence. These efforts were all in place to eliminate potential biases and results that could have been produced more by chance rather than science. Concluding the study, subjects also completed a survey to gather other variables, such as demographics for future research. In terms of the statistical analysis, a 2 population dependent sample mean test, a 2 population independent sample mean test, and an analysis of variance across the 3 groups was used to gather the results to make an informed decision. The results of the statistical analysis are shown throughout the report.

Audience & Impact

The intended audience is young adults and college students. This is the main age demographic of consumers when it comes to Lo-Fi Hip Hop, and they listen to music the most when it comes to academic performance. Each audience member is hoped to understand what the recent genre is, and the correlation with reading speed. This project has impacted the researcher by giving a greater sense of the rigor in conducting real-world research, and methods in concisely presenting said findings.

References

Aguiar, Luis. "Let the music play? Free streaming and its effects on digital music consumption." Information Economics and Policy 41 (2017): 1-14.

Chen, Hailiang, Prabuddha De, and Yu Jeffrey Hu. "IT-enabled broadcasting in social media: An empirical study of artists’ activities and music sales." Information Systems Research26.3 (2015): 513-531.

Datta, Hannes, George Knox, and Bart J. Bronnenberg. "Changing their tune: How consumers’ adoption of online  streaming affects music consumption and discovery." Marketing Science 37.1 (2018): 5-21.

Dewan, Sanjeev, and Jui Ramaprasad. "Social media, traditional media, and music sales." Mis Quarterly 38.1 (2014):  101-122.

Hanna, Richard, Andrew Rohm, and Victoria L. Crittenden. "We’re all connected: The power of the social media  ecosystem." Business horizons 54.3 (2011): 265-273.

Jenkins, J S. “The Mozart effect.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine vol. 94,4 (2001): 170-2.  doi:10.1177/014107680109400404

Lennings, Heidi I. Brummert, and Wayne A. Warburton. "The effect of auditory versus visual violent media exposure on  aggressive behaviour: The role of song lyrics, video clips and musical tone." Journal of Experimental Social  Psychology 47.4 (2011): 794-799.

Mensink, Michael C., and Lara Dodge. "Music and memory: Effects of listening to music while studying in college  students." (2014).

Nicholson, Robyn. "Saviours or burdens? The effects of streaming services on the music industry." Dalhousie Journal of  Interdisciplinary Management 15 (2019). 

Wang, Justin. "Lofi hip-hop radio: Beats to relax/study to." The Word: Tha Stanford Journal of Student Hiphop Research  1.1 (2020): 10-23.

Winston, Emma, and Laurence Saywood. "Beats to relax/study to: Contradiction and paradox in lofi hip hop." IA SPMJournal 9.2 (2019): 40-54.

Acknowledgments

         I would like to give a big thanks to the entire Arts Scholars faculty for all they have helped me to accomplish with my capstone project over the last year. Particularly Heather who was my faculty advisor and mentor throughout the production of my project. Heather helped me to always think creatively and add something more to my project. Heather also helped me reserve a room for the actual study and helped to advertise my event. So thanks again Heather. I would also like to thank the Cambridge Community Center and College Park Scholars for allowing me time to reserve a room and conduct my capstone study. Finally, I would like to thank all of the students who came out to support and participate in my event. Without them, none of this would have been possible, as no data would have been provided. Thank you.