While it's easy to read into the lyrics two decades later, the song wasn't written as a kiss-off to their former label. 'The Middle,' from Jimmy Eat World's fourth album, Bleed American, which celebrates its 20-year anniversary this month, shot to the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 all-genre chart and made the four then-twentysomethings from Mesa, Arizona, darlings of late-night TV and MTV. It doesn't matter if it's good enough / For someone else'-sound almost like a masterclass in self-motivational life lessons. Fast-forward to 2002, and the band is performing their breakout hit, 'The Middle,' on 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien.' Then 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.' Then 'Saturday Night Live.' The song's uplifting lyrics-'Don't write yourself off yet. For every Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots success story, there were bands like Fig Dish and For Love Not Lisa, whose albums failed to launch.Īnd yet there was Jimmy Eat World, an emo-punk band scooped by Capitol Records right out of high school in '95 only to be dropped after two albums in.
Second chances are hard to come by in the music business, and the 1990s alt-rock gold rush was no different.
