“Ultimately it became “In Pursuit of Imperfection” which is essentially a study about why lofi approaches are so appealing to contemporary producers, but ideally I’d like to expand it via a doctorate at some point.”
I would really be interested in that, especially where that originated. If you listen to e.g. Dj Premier talk about making beats back in the day, I fell like he (and maybe many others) did their best to overcome the limitations of the gear back then. Which are now the same limitations that make those beats sound special to us and why people are paying high amounts for SP-1200s and MPC 60s.
So where in time was that point when that shifted. When “perfection” was so easily achieved that imperfection was pursuited. I think it can be found in many parts of musical history even earlier (punk rock comes to my mind immediately).
I am very spilt on this matter personally. While i appreciate well produced and recorded music a lot, I think nothing is more boring than absolute perfection.