The sisters grew up in a musical family, and began playing instruments from an early age in the cover band Rockinhaim, fronted by their parents, Moti and Donna.

The two elder sisters, Este and Danielle, performed briefly with the pop group Valli Girls in 2005, releasing a few songs on soundtrack and compilation albums under that name.

The band began recording material for their first album, Days Are Gone (2013), in sessions between touring dates, including appearances at the Glastonbury Festival.

The album charted in the top ten in several countries, including the number-one spot in the UK, and the group had won several "best of" awards by the end of 2013.

[7] While Danielle showed an aptitude for the guitar at a young age, Moti made the decision that Este would be more suited to the bass, buying her a second-hand Fender for $50.

[8] The siblings were encouraged to listen to their parents' 1970s classic rock and Americana records and, during their childhood, the family formed a band called Rockinhaim to play cover versions at local charity fairs, with Moti on drums and Donna on guitar.

[11] They played typical wedding band material, including the Beatles' "Get Back", Billy Joel's "You May Be Right" and Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl",[12] but only did free community and benefit gigs at churches, schools and hospitals.

[4] In 2004, Danielle and Este were invited to join the Valli Girls, an all-female pop rock group signed to Columbia Records.

[8] The group made an appearance at the 2005 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, and their song "Valli Nation" was included in the companion soundtrack.

"[12] Following working with Casablancas from late 2009 to mid 2010, she auditioned for a place in Scarlet Fever, the all-female backing band for CeeLo Green.

[8] After playing shows supporting Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the Henry Clay People and Kesha, Haim released the EP Forever, which included three songs, in February 2012 as a time-limited free download on their website.

[4][17] The EP received attention from the music industry following a successful series of shows at the South by Southwest festival in March.

[32] The group also signed a management contract with the conglomerate Roc Nation, returned to South by SouthWest in March 2013[33] and earned their own "At Your Request" video feature on Idolator.

[34] In early 2013, they were featured on American recording artist Kid Cudi's third studio album Indicud, on the song titled "Red Eye".

[35] Danielle Haim appeared on the first track, "You're No Good", from Major Lazer's second album, Free the Universe, alongside Santigold, Vybz Kartel and Yasmin.

[8] The group experimented with drum machines and the music program GarageBand, adding hip hop and R&B influences to their existing sound.

[51] In 2014, the sisters recorded backing vocals with the supergroup the New Basement Tapes for their album Lost on the River, performing on the tracks "Kansas City" and "The Whistle Is Blowing".

[60] In November, the group contributed their vocals to the track "Pray to God" on Calvin Harris' fourth studio album Motion.

[75] On November 11, 2018, the group performed at Vetsaid 2018, within a lineup alongside Ringo Starr, James Taylor and Don Henley of the Eagles.

[78][79] Danielle contributed extensively to Father of the Bride, the fourth studio album by Vampire Weekend, as well as providing drums on several songs on Immunity by Clairo.

In July 2019, they released the song "Summer Girl", which was inspired by producer and Danielle's partner Ariel Rechtshaid's fight with cancer.

[92][93] On February 18, 2021, Haim released a remix of their song "Gasoline", featuring Swift, along with an expanded version of Women in Music Pt.

[104] The band has also cited Joni Mitchell,[111] Prince,[110] Aaliyah, TLC,[112] Destiny's Child and Spice Girls as influences.

[9] Haim is also recognized for their music videos, which frequently follow the band members in long takes as they casually stride through various Los Angeles locations.

The band members have cited their fondness for learning choreography, as well as their parents' decision to instill a love of dance when they were children, as factors behind the prevalence of movement in their videos.

"[125] Writing for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis praised the band's songwriting abilities, saying it "has a certain kind of glossily depthless pop perfection down pat".

[9] In her survey of pop music in 2013, Observer critic Kitty Empire praised the band for "using the vector of harmonies to splice R&B with 1970s soft rock.

They laid waste, too, to a herd of ghastly old hobby horses about guitar bands being unmarketable and record sales only being tied to women's state of undress.

"[126] In 2013, The Independent was more ambivalent about the band, saying there was "an insubstantiality at their core" of their music, as they "plug unashamedly" into the heritage of acts such as Fleetwood Mac and the Bangles, ultimately finding Haim as "Okay, but not much more".