A music subgenre is making its annual reemergence: Midwest emo. The strained vocals, angsty lyrics and indie style make the perfect soundtrack to gloomy autumn days. But just where did it come from? And why does it have such staying power in music?
While it has grown significantly in recent years, thanks to a resurgence in angsty music and memes about the often obscenely long titles (looking at you, "Scott Pilgrim vs. My GPA") and the unorthodox vocal style of the songs, Midwest emo first emerged in the 1990s out of, you guessed it, the Midwest.
Pioneers of the genre borrowed musical elements from the first wave of emotional hardcore, otherwise known as emo, which occurred in the late 1980s as a response to the hardcore punk scene, and merged it with softer indie elements, creating a much less intense version of emo.
Bands like Sunny Day Real Estate and American Football would borrow elements from math rock, a genre characterized by complex, atypical rhythms and odd time signatures, to create the backbone of Midwest emo.
This wave of emo music would last into the early 2000s, where it would then be overtaken by newer emo bands like Brand New and Jimmy Eat World, thus ending the first wave of midwest emo.
However, a revival began in the 2010s and 2020s, with bands like Modern Baseball, Mom Jeans and The Front Bottoms taking elements from the original Midwest emo style and updating them for a more modern era.
The subgenre has since grown in popularity, with many of the most popular bands having several hundred thousand, if not millions, of listeners on Spotify. But what about Midwest emo has allowed it to stick around for so long?
The answer lies in the genre's creative DIY sound made with instruments that could typically be found in any basement, like electric guitars, drums and basses. On top of that, ordinary sounds are often sampled in songs, like voicemails, arguments and phone calls.
While the concept has been made an internet joke countless times, it lends an air of accessibility to the genre. Its emotional, often strained, sometimes flat-out screaming vocals also characterize many songs, making them easy to sing and resonate with.
Furthermore, the genre is well known for its angsty lyrics, often about universal experiences such as heartbreak and the struggles of life, which many people can relate to. The lyrics oftentimes are not extremely complex and are easy for listeners to analyze and identify with, furthering the sense of accessibility for the masses.
Despite the constant memes and jokes about the subgenre, its continual power for the past 30 years lends credibility to the effect that Midwest emo has had on music and clues listeners into what the future holds for artists.
