This is probably a question of taste.
The Rolling Stones would often overdrive an acoustic guitar to make it sizzle like an electric. I understand that overdriving is about the same as clipping the sound. I’ve got a bunch of tracks where I’ve clipped. Is that just my sound? I’ve done some corrections of clipping, but then I wonder, am I clipping because I like the way it sounds in the headphones? It’s just pop music and I prefer a raw sound.
What about dirty sounding recording, in general?
McCartney liked pure Beach Boys type sounds. Then you have Lennon with I Am The Walrus. That recording is dirty sounding from the first 1/2 second. He recorded a vinyl blank demonstration disc with it’s hissing and popping. That sound is heard from the start to the finish. I Want You is a multiple rerecording (dubbing) until white noise is produced at the end.
Then you’ve got the whole DIY home recording movement with artists like Daniel Johnston recording in his living room with a cheap Phillips cassette recorder. His songs transcend the poor production. I would rather hear a poor recording of a great song than a great recording of a bad song. Dylan was considered to be LoFi in his early work. The Ramones were LoFi also. That given, they still all eventually gravitated to HiFi. Lennon & McCartney are the exception. They began as HiFi artists and evolved into LoFi with songs like Walrus and Yer Blues and McCartney’s 1st solo album, which was recorded in his basement.
