do you have a lifelong hatred of Chad Brad and Clayton for cacking you in the school playground do your palms sweat profusely as you wait to order your sandwich at Subway you call your guitar your best friend although you only practice the same lick once a day and for the rest of your time with popcorn content and TV static well Midwest emo is the perfect genre for you Midwest emo is categorized by twinkly arpeggiated and distinct guitar riffs alongside a singing style that was indistinguishable from the noise heard immediately after your cousin falls off the rope swing Midwest emo took the anger of DC hardcore and immediately nullified it with depression and heartbreak creating a sound that somehow is a British Kid born in the 2000s makes me nostalgic about a small town in the USA Midwest emo is commonly associated with math Rock which is a genre characterized by complex rhythmic structures odd time signatures bait tunings extended chords and lyrical content includes but it's not limited to reminiscing about the perfect summer when in hindsight all you did was play League of Legends begging for a text back from Stacy and listing in detail every reason why a woman shouldn't date you but where did this all come from what led to the creation of this beautiful mess of a genre well much like most pits of degeneracy Midwest Emo's development as a genre is pretty much a straight line from Punk specifically the DC hardcore scene this particular scene of hardcore punk was directly influenced by bands like the Ramones who would have tour dates around the area before too long every basketball court in Washington was filled with sweaty bold men screaming about how sick it was being straight edge was launching a disgusting amalgamation of power chords and blast beats directly into tonight's filled eardrums fans like Minor Threat and Bad Brains were at the Forefront of this genre of maxed out Distortion spamming power chords and giving white Christian Brothers their four music-related heart attack in the last three years but Punk is not emo and Emo's not Punk so how is emo born out of the scene it would only take one group of down bad teenagers to lay the brown Works what would eventually become Emo rights of Springs first and only self-titled EP released in 1995 would do the unthinkable it would take Punk and slow it down this combined with softer tones and lyrics which focused on personal pain and suffering rather than just attitude and rage towards the world this approach to poke will stop the emo court or emotional hardcore by fans only to the dismay of individuals who worked on the rights of spring project as they would proclaim the genre named to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life and the most recorded term ever the argument highlighted that all music aims to be emotional so the label should be used for just one genre regardless of the criticism and honestly outright disgust from the creators the labels stuck in the next few years it will be used to describe bands such as Embrace gray matter and huskadu which would turn out to be some pretty Financial bands some of these bands alongside bands like Melvins and Black Sabbath would go on to influence grunge which would become very popular and mainstream thanks to this very sexy individual this allowed alternative music genres to come to the Forefront of the culture and not be contained in a singular location or subculture emo would hit the West Coast in the early 90s and spread out from there multiple local scenes would form insular from each other all their own ideas of what emo actually is the only scene that's important to this video is Midwest we'll come back to that later loadable artists from this time period include sunny day real estate Captain Jazz and jawbreaker shortly after this in the early 2000s The public's perception of emo will quickly turn into this like My Chemical Romance Green Day or Paramore become more popular foreign [Music] okay let's go back to the Cozy and safe Midwest in the mid 90s the second wave of emo was well underway with bands like cap and Jazz braid and mineral craft in the midwest emo sound combining Matlock elements with the emo sound of the Bands beforehand and just like that Midwest email was born and gnarly to them Midwest emo was about to birth their favorite depressed child American football would release their self-titled Masterpiece in 1999 the album would combine Teen Angst with musical experimentation to create a truly unique project band members would actually record the album in the final days of college stamping something very Bittersweet and strangely familiar into the album these themes will be supplemented by arpeggiator guitars complicated song structure and wax time signatures creating something that sounds more like jazz and hardcore although the album was extremely Epic on release American football would only received minor success on College radio and has agreed the band broke up and went their separate ways it was time time to hang up the flannel shirt take off the white Converse I'll leave the scratched up Telecaster in storage Midwest emo was officially dead [Music] by countless musicians and as time went on these bands would be inspiring to many upcoming artists this would reach a boiling point due to the internet the internet completely changed how we View and consume culture as a species completely changing the way music is discovered and distributed for every nerdy 90s band there was an even more disgusting basement dweller that was willing to stop at nothing to increase his percentage the Midwest emo bands in the 90s were suddenly thrust towards a completely new generation of people almost 20 years on and not much had changed there were still nerdy teenagers who had an urge to whine about their terrible love life while simultaneously Flex their big brain high IQ finger tapping skills resulting in the 2010s producing bands like sports Chinese football free throw water but wait wait a second why do so many Midwest bands have sports related names there's no way this actually appeals to it was time for the Midwest emo Revival bands like algon and caldwella and snowing would fall throughout this movement in the underground taking inspiration from the second wave of emo in the 90s they would ramp up the cringe using even twinkly Lighting in a higher pitch than ever before then even introducing brass instrumentation I was briefly explored by American football beforehand this revival quickly Diversified the unavoidable plague that has pop punk injected influence into the scene with bands like the hotelier and Modern Baseball Indie would Slither its way into influence with bands like tigers jaw and sorority noise and postpunk would kick down the door with bands like Brave Little Abacus and the world is a beautiful place and I'm no longer afraid to die and that brings us to the present day Midwest Emo's arguably as relevant now as it's ever been the scene is still rich with new talent and projects and the genre is revered by Boomers Zoomers and kumas now you may think you're prepared for your Midwest emo Journey I've got your books already your lunch is packed but you're still naked how the [ __ ] are you going to be a true Midwest emo without any clothes Midwest emo fashion differs from the styles of genres beforehand mainly because it's [ __ ] boring Midwest emo musicians are often seen prioritizing Comfort over whatever the [ __ ] this is Page trousers bladder shirts and thick rimmed glasses allow you to blend in blend into Whatever anxiety inducing public scenario you might be in while still being able to act pretentious first bloating out words like Norm caught and Pinkerton to the local doctor so what lies ahead for Midwest emo I truly believe Midwest will never die it has built a loyal fan base that are oftentimes actively contributing to the culture in positive ways even so the sound of Midwest emo will continue to feel nostalgic and warm for edgy teenagers even when the charts are filled with exclusively hyper pop that's about and other music that appeals to the ADHD of stiffing children made us emo will always have a place it may disappear for a few years and pull them back Into Obscurity when you least expect it when you're in your room staring at your wall down horrendously Midwest will return to make you feel even [ __ ] worse laughs