Lo-fi Hip Hop Streaming in China: Online Engagement, Motivation, and Sense of Community

Abstract

As a new wave of music, Lo-fi Hip Hop has emerged on YouTube, and Bilibili in China, transforming into a trending and distinctive video streaming phenomenon. However, it remains unknown how viewers with divergent socio-cultural backgrounds engage with the Lo-fi Hip Hop streaming video on digital platforms, why they participate, and how the sense of community is exhibited. A qualitative mix-method study containing comment analysis and in-depth interviews (N=12) was conducted to investigate the uniqueness of the Lo-fi Hip Hop community on Bilibili. The findings revealed the difference in viewers’ online community engagement between YouTube and Bilibili and various motivations of watching Lo-fi Hip Hop streaming. Lastly, the study also extends the Sense of Community (SoC) theory to the community with implications for the application. The study further contributes to the research of Lo-fi Hip Hop video streaming in a global context.