It’s kind of a given that the East and West coast and the Southern states have a pretty killer music scene. In fact, a lot of bands find their start in Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Nashville and other large areas in the more trendy edges of the U.S. However, the oft overlooked music scene in the Mid-West is fairly strong in and of itself. Because I’m a Wisconsin native, I feel like I must highlight this musical area so that you fine folks out in the other areas of the world can see what we Mid-West folks have to offer.

The artists that have come from the Mid-West include big names like Bob Dylan, Prince, and (from my college town, Eau Claire) Bon Iver. In addition to artists like this, there is a subgenre of hip-hop (cleverly named Mid-West hip-hop) that centers around the region and seems to have its own style that is often difficult to define, but which usually has a tempo ranging from 90 to 180 BPM which is similar in range to Southern Rap (typically 80-180 BPM). Both of these have a much higher variation compared to both West Coast hip-hop (typically 100-120 BPM) and East Coast hip-hop (90-120 BPM). Hip-hop artists coming out of the mid-west include Doomtree, Brother Ali, Kanye West and Kid Cudi.

The festival scene, which is strong particularly in New York City, Los Angeles, and Nashville, tends to brush over the Mid-West. The festival season usually runs from late spring to early fall, a time when the central states are at their finest, but also a time when people are more likely to go to the more tourist heavy areas of the U.S. More often than not, the festivals in the Mid-West tend to get overlooked by big names like Bonnaroo, Coachella and Burning Man. However, wonderful festivals such as Electric Forest in Michigan, Summerfest in Milwaukee, and the two big Illinois festivals (Summer Camp and Lollapalooza) have a lot to offer. Both Electric Forest and Summer Camp are quickly becoming festival must-sees in the festie community, while Summerfest is touted as the world’s largest music festival and Lollapalooza has rated consistently in the Top 20 Music Festivals according to Fuse. I myself have gone to a few music festivals (Summerset and Summer Camp) in the region and can attest to their greatness. This year my college town is putting on a music festival called Eaux Claires whose line-up has been praised by DJs on Sirius XM, and I’m excited to get re-immersed in the music festival scene once again upon heading home to Wisconsin.

So, if you aren’t convinced of the greatness of the Mid-West music scene yet, I have one more little tidbit of information that might convince you. In 2012, Livability.com decided to use a set of criteria to find the top 10 best music scenes in cities outside of New York City, Nashville, and Los Angeles. Madison came in at #8, which was very good at stoking my Wisconsin pride. However, the big (almost) winner was Minneapolis which came in at #2, beating out Portland at #3 and losing to Athens, Georgia. If that doesn’t say something about the awesome music scene in the Mid-West, I don’t know what does.