Mid-west emo is one of the many incarnations of emo music, which originated in the 80s with hardcore punk that featured introspective lyrics rather than politically charged ones. The genre kept evolving and branching into different sub-genres (which are organized in a neat genre tree here.
this is basically every youtube thumbnail for a mid-west emo mixtape
No. Not the sport, the band. "What band?" you may be thinking. Well, I'm sure mid-west emo, known for its warm and "twinkly"
guitar riffs and sad suburban boy lyrics has bred many well known bands within the genre. But, American Football was the pioneer of the genre,
accidentally. But who ever invented a genre on purpose anyway? The band was created in and dissipated in the members' senior year at UI Champlaign.
They recorded one album right before they graduated and the album accidentally became a hit, more specifically, their single Never Meant struck a chord with its audience and also became the butt of a plethora of memes. Most feature rap or EDM songs with drops, but the opening riff to Never Meant replaces the "sick drop". I suggest you check it out for yourself on the tube. I think it's exceptional that a song mostly known for its memeness is also known for its orginality and awesomness. It may be a meme, but people still enjoy listening to it and I think that's just beautiful.