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Playlist to the essentials- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0JavC89BtnCcN7RufjkfDB?si=6ce1fba55d524317

My favorite thing about Midwest emo is how no one agrees what it is and who is actually in it

How is it confusing? Have you never sat on the roof of a house in the midwest in the nineties staring at the streetlights of the town stretching out to your closest major metropolitan area thinking about the girl you lost?

Midwest Emo: “It’s 1998. You just got off your shift at Hobby Lobby, and you’re feeling sad”

If it's not from the Champaign region of Illinois it's just sparking whine.

It's a super basic opinion, but the riff on American Football's never meant is one of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. It being the first thing you hear on the album was an incredible decision, and it grabbed me instantly. I wish I could hear it for the first time again.

I think the reason why midwest emo has stuck with me so much is for two reasons.
1: each band is so unique i always find a new way to listen to it.
2: its such a vulnerable genre, and im not typically vulnerable, its an outlet.

For that im truely thankful.

Hot mulligan is taking Midwest emo to new places imo. They aren’t very big but their ENTIRE catalog slaps

Fun fact. If you listen to each album as he mentions them this video goes for a week

As a 41 year old fan of the genre that has been following it since i was 11 when I first purchased the American Footballs self titled album, and The get up kids 'Something to write home about" at the encouragement of the cute goth girl working at Amoeba records... and has followed the genre to this day. This video made me happy. It also warms my heart to see kids in their 20s geeking out over Hot Mulligan and Title Fight.

tigers jaw, hotelier, and mobo were apart of the emo revival era and everything from that era tends to be conflated with Midwest emo I feel like

i love midwest emo as a whole genre. bands like macseal, TRSH, mom jeans, marietta, sports., i’m glad it’s you, and so many others just make me feel a certain way inside that i love

I'm 26. In my early 20s I had a 50 year old roommate who had been a metal head in the 80s and played in emo bands in the 90s. He says he saw American Football back then and was one of very few people in attendance. Like, single digit. It's insane how obscure the scene seems to have been at the time. But I guess that's just society pre internet. Now even relatively niche communities can assemble in great numbers online.

Great video, btw.

I think the midwest was the perfect place for this music to grow. Most of it was from the suburbs which are generally nice visually and people can have a good life there in financial terms, but most of these people's parents were boomers who didn't give a shit about their kids and most emotional issues were ignored, downplayed or outright mocked. A great way to raise kids. Many had depression or something like it and therapy was still very much stigmatized. I think the rise of podcasts and people having long drawn-out conversations about their feelings led to people feeling less sad, actually going to therapy and not feeling so sad or "emo"

Being someone who witnessed the "2nd wave" of midwest emo, there were many small towns with music scenes that were very much alive and teaming with activity. I remember there were shows every single night but they were in basements, closed businesses, dive bars, churches and community centers. Most bands never had a photo taken of them , let alone had a venue to play in. Most cities and towns did not appreciate these bands organizing shows bc of the large numbers of kids. Keep in mind, not everyone had the internet so the only means of promoting a show was thru my space. Most of the time you had to physically go into a record store, coffee shop or get a flyer at your local school. Not much was saved or recorded but to say there wasn't a midwest music scene is highly dismissive. I remember a pipeline from Minneapolis to Madison to Milwaukee and down to Chicago and Champagne, Illinois.  Let's not also forget Indiana,  Michigan and Ohio and it was all DIY.  Just bc they were small, doesn't mean it wasn't there.

Im old as hell (48), used to see sunny day real estate at an all ages club in a suburb  just outside of seattle in the early 90s.

lmao i made a midwest emo mixtape when i was like 13 after my first heartbreak this genre means so much to me

No Mom Jeans mention

oh yeah panucci's pizza we dont talk about that

I was in highschool for 2nd wave. it didn't have a huge community, you're right, but the kids in my area all knew eachother and felt like we were in on the secret. It was also closely tied into the local hardcore scene due to the similar roots of the genres