FUNCTUMUS: The Functional Turn in Music will investigate the effects of music’s functionalisation on musical practices through a case study on lofi hip-hop, a genre that was appropriated and rebranded as “beats to relax/study to” by internet curators in the late 2010s.
Objectives:
- Assess how lofi hip-hop and its functional appropriation is understood within online communities, comparing those who primarily appreciate it as an art form to those who primarily consider it functional music.
- Enquire how the functional appropriation of lofi hip-hop has been experienced by producers, curators, and listeners within the genre, focusing on the impact to musical practices.
- Analyse key musical developments in lofi hip-hop since its functional appropriation and reconceptualization, focusing on temporal aspects of rhythm, groove, compositional structure, and related music production practices.
- Identify how shifts within lofi hip-hop (musical practices, style, etc.) are interpreted as reflective of underlying power dynamics or hegemonic mechanisms.
