Midwest Emo
Midwest emo is a melodic, guitar-focused style of emo that developed in the American Midwest in the 1990s.
Its mark is clean, chiming guitar lines built on arpeggios and distinct riffs, set against shifting rhythms borrowed from math rock and indie rock. Vocals are unpolished and unconventional, and the lyrics are personal. It is quieter and less aggressive than the hardcore-based emo before it, and it shaped the emo revival of the 2010s.
Artists it is known for: American Football, Cap'n Jazz, The Get Up Kids, The Promise Ring.
- Family
- Punk & Emo
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- American Midwest, 1990s
- Also called
- Midwestern emo
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 7%
About 5,400 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have midwest emo among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Midwest Emo artists
Title Fight
Modern Baseball
Mom Jeans.
McCafferty
Dead Calm
Car Seat Headrest
The Front Bottoms
American Football
Sunny Day Real Estate
Basement
The midwest emo artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.