I’m In My Midwest Emo Phase And No One Can Stop Me

LISTEN. I will not be made fun of for my recent love for midwest emo (and just emo in general). I am living my best Modern Baseball, American Football, Mom Jeans life and I cannot be stopped. If you don’t know, midwest emo is a subgenre/revival of emo that started in the 1990s in the midwest. It has distinct guitar riffs and vocals that make it unique to the midwest emo genre, though the label is fluid. So, let me give you a rundown of what I’ve been listening to lately and my opinions on emo because I am specific about what I like. (I’d like to clarify that not all of this music is midwest emo. Some is just emo or emo punk. Whatever, just leave me alone.)

I think I first started getting into midwest emo stuff through listening to the local band Poor Sports. Now I know they aren’t midwest emo, but they ARE emo punk/hardcore and I totally dig it. Gimme a little screaming about how your girlfriend broke up with you along with some punchy drums; I’ll eat that up. (Fun fact: the drummer in Poor Sports is actually my drummer in Hazel Paul Band.)

From there I started listening to Modern Baseball. (My favorites will be in the playlist below.) I will say that I am a little picky when it comes to the emo I like. The vocals have to have the perfect level of bad. You know? Like it’s gotta be bad singing, but not too bad. Sometimes the whine-y sounding emo voice just gets old, so I like a variation in vocals. I don’t mind some cliche lyrics, but it’s gotta have passion behind it. You got dumped for a hotter guy? Scream about it in a song; really show the listener how you’re feeling. 

Something fun about emo is that a lot of these musicians are crazy talented. If you ever get into stuff like math rock, you’ll hear that to create this type of music takes some extreme skill. The band Tiny Moving Parts has a song called “Always Focused.” It is math rock-ish and really good. Also, their most popular song is “Caution” and it’s great. It seems to be a common thought that emo music is just crappy and doesn’t take any skill, but if you get into some of this music, you’ll have your mind changed. 

It’s nice to just zone out while listening to stuff like this. Maybe that’s just me. I like emo when you’re listening to it mindlessly and then are suddenly pulled back into reality when you hear an interesting lyric or melody or whatever that just resonates with you. I like emo when you can yell along to the angsty, and sometimes cheesy, chorus. I like emo when you feel you have a community of people that understand what you are going through. 

Anyway, maybe you should listen to this playlist of songs I’ve been listening to lately and tell me what you think.