Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Digital music technology allows artists to do some amazing things in the studio, and even behind personal laptops.  But some bands reject the fancy bells and whistles, opting for cheap and sometimes outdated recording methods.  These ‘lo-fi’ musicians record whole albums in anywhere from their garages, basements and even bedrooms. The result can sound fuzzy, washed out and even amateurish. Though you may not be familiar with lo-fi music, anyone who can hum the intro riff to “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes has at least encountered it.

Washington D.C.’s Secret Pop Band utilizes the “do it yourself” mantra of lo-fi recording due to monetary reasons. (Courtesy Secret Pop Band)

For many artists, lo-fi is a practical and frugal way for them to record their music, but it can be as much of a stylistic decision as it is a financial one.  Many insist that the simple sound maintains a purity to the aesthetic of the band’s music and focuses on the substance of a song rather than the frills. But as bands grow in their popularity and their bank accounts, there comes a time where they have to choose whether to keep making lo-fi music and stick to the idealized aesthetic of the 1960s or move on to greener studio pastures.

The term lo-fi was originally used to describe a small sector of indie-rock artists in the eighties and nineties, but as more and more diverse artists including Iron & Wine, No Age and Beck are pegged with the lo-fi title, it becomes harder to define.  Is it a genre, or is it merely a technique?  Is it something one should aim to grow out of, or something one should embrace?

Camden Andrews the All Songs Considered intern; John Asante is the Weekend All Things Considered intern; and Luis Torres is the communications intern.