By: Emily Brower

      To me, there is hardly anything more satisfying, brain-itching or familiar as those first three sweet yet completely melancholic guitar notes at the beginning of American Football’s “Never Meant.” This is just one quintessential song from an entire genre called “Midwest Emo” which is not to be confused with traditional music of the Emo persuasion. Moreover, Midwest Emo is a different yet similar genre that takes elements of emo and combines it with indie rock, math rock  and folk. Midwest Emo lacks regular Emo’s intensity and flair for the sad and dramatic. The music tends toward alternating loud and soft dynamics, off-key, strained or whiny vocals with little screaming and what can only be described as twinkly, arpeggiated guitar parts. 

      Concerning its origins, Midwest Emo began in the 1990s as a response to the emo sound of Washington D.C. According to The Chicago Reader critic Leor Galil, the second-wave bands of the Midwest Emo scene “transformed the angular fury of D.C. emo into something malleable, melodic, and cathartic–its common features included cycling guitar parts, chugging bass lines, and unconventional singing that sounded like a sweet neighbor kid with no vocal training but plenty of heart.” Just as its name suggests, Midwest Emo began here, in midwestern states. As of today, five notable albums of the Midwest Emo genre are as follows (in no particular order):

”American Football” by American Football

”Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We’ve Slipped On and Egg Shells We’ve Tippy Toed Over” by Cap’n Jazz

”Diary” by Sunny Day Real Estate

“Just Got Back From the Discomfort–We’re Alright” by The Brave Little Abacus

In fact, Midwest Emo has strong ties just an hour and a half away in Champaign, Ill. as American Football, the poster child of Midwest Emo, got its start there. The house pictured on their self-titled debut has become a hot spot for Emo pilgrims, and is even listed as a “place of worship” on Google. 

      No genre can quite romanticize what is widely considered the most boring place on earth in the way Midwest Emo can. This strange magic of nostalgia and homesickness fills your ears as you listen to some lame kid record terribly unsteady vocals from his parents’ garage. Midwest Emo music is strange and that is exactly why you should check it out.