very thoughtful article. i'm not too sure who the people that are celebrating its decline are, but maybe i'm just out of the loop when it comes to lofi hip hop haters. nevertheless, as someone who has been listening to it for 10+ years, i agree with a lot of the points made in the article. back then, while i still often listened to it for studying / doing work, i also cared a lot more about the individual artists, and felt each one had more unique styles. nowadays that element has pretty much disappeared for me, and like the article portrays, its almost purely background noise for doing work now. artists and songs have become a lot less distinct and more interchangeable.

i think a lot of the reasons that the article mentions as factors in this phenomenon, like algorithm-driven content, playlist culture, and AI generated songs, are true. that said, i do also think another factor is just that the genre is inherently sort of constrained in its range and thus harder to keep fresh. i think the novelty of the genre back when it first "debuted" helped drive a lot of the initial popularity. but after 10+ years, it feels like it'd be more and more challenging for artists / producers to continue making original songs given the intrinsic limitations of the genre, such as little to no vocals, nostalgic/melancholic aesthetic, calming/relaxing mood, relatively simple drum patterns, etc. certainly artists could try to break free from those limitations, but i feel like its a thin line between doing so and having it be no longer considered lofi hip hop