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I didn't see "Lower" Midwest in the initial post. Maybe I missed it. I only saw "Middle America", which to most, as they see no reason to differentiate, is the entire Midwest. If you lived on a coast, you would not differentiate...the Midwest is the Midwest. It's "flyover" country. The Great Lakes Region gets lumped into the Midwest, in the minds of those who "fly over."
I clearly said Lower Midwest in my other response if you re-read it. But either way, the cities in the Upper Midwest might look no different than ones in the Lower part of the region, but they don't feel the same. For cities like Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee, their economies were almost exclusively industrial due to being on the Great Lakes, and because of this they attracted immigrants from predominately blue-collar Catholic regions of Europe, which is thought to have contributed to their accent being more different than other parts of the country, with the distinct flat "A" vowel after consenants. For the north-central region of the Upper Midwest such as Minnesota and the Dakotas, again the local culture is different. The region is far colder than the national average and because of its industry being more based around logging, it attracted immigrants from Scandinavia and northern Germany, which again is why there accent is also different, with the famous long "O" vowel that was famously depicted in the 1996 black-comedy film "Fargo".
The Lower Midwest (Ohio, Indiana, downstate Illinois, northern Missouri, southern Iowa, northeast Kansas and southeast Nebraska) is what most people know as true 'Middle America' or 'fly-over country' as it is northern enough in the country to be industrial, southern enough to have a gently rural aspect, western enough to have once been on the frontier and eastern enough to have a past.
I've always thought of "Middle America" as being a state of mind or lifestyle rather than a region. There are places all across the US that can be described as Middle America.
I've always thought of "Middle America" as being a state of mind or lifestyle rather than a region. There are places all across the US that can be described as Middle America.
According to your Wikipedia link, "Middle America" refers to a geographical and cultural label. And Wikipedia isn't the best place to use as evidence. According to this site, Middle America extends all the way to Upstate NY and as west as Oregon.
Peoria IL has been considered as a middle America model for decades. There is even the question "Will it play in Peoria?" to ask if something will be accepted in mainstream USA.
Eh, I’m not sure if Peoria is really that average of a place in the country. It’s not in a major metropolitan area and historically it’s also been very urban and industrial. Supposedly whoever coined the term “Will it play in Peoria?” never actually stood foot in the city.
I didn't see "Lower" Midwest in the initial post. Maybe I missed it. I only saw "Middle America", which to most, as they see no reason to differentiate, is the entire Midwest. If you lived on a coast, you would not differentiate...the Midwest is the Midwest. It's "flyover" country. The Great Lakes Region gets lumped into the Midwest, in the minds of those who "fly over."
It's funny though. To some, "flyover" country is the Los Angeles region on flights from certain parts of Latin America to San Francisco lol. It depends on who you ask.
Eh, I’m not sure if Peoria is really that average of a place in the country. It’s not in a major metropolitan area and historically it’s also been very urban and industrial. Supposedly whoever coined the term “Will it play in Peoria?” never actually stood foot in the city.
This is so subjective it's pretty insane really. Peoria used to be a heavily industrialized river city. Now, healthcare and technology have made it sort of a "mini Pittsburgh".
This is so subjective it's pretty insane really. Peoria used to be a heavily industrialized river city. Now, healthcare and technology have made it sort of a "mini Pittsburgh".
It all depends on what you consider "average".
When the term “Will it play in Peoria?” was popular as a reference to Middle America in the vaudeville era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most Americans lived in towns with no more than 10,000 people. Peoria had well over 50,000 and continued to grow at a faster rate than most Midwest towns. In the 21st century it is no longer anywhere near as representative of the national average because the city is also not within a major metropolitan area (by major metro, I mean one with at least 2 million people).
When the term “Will it play in Peoria?” was popular as a reference to Middle America in the vaudeville era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most Americans lived in towns with no more than 10,000 people. Peoria had well over 50,000 and continued to grow at a faster rate than most Midwest towns. In the 21st century it is no longer anywhere near as representative of the national average because the city is also not within a major metropolitan area (by major metro, I mean one with at least 2 million people).
So anyway, the question now centers around "will it be successful in the more heavily populated areas?" Small town America is not where most companies are looking to gauge as most people do not live there.
When the term “Will it play in Peoria?” was popular as a reference to Middle America in the vaudeville era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most Americans lived in towns with no more than 10,000 people. Peoria had well over 50,000 and continued to grow at a faster rate than most Midwest towns. In the 21st century it is no longer anywhere near as representative of the national average because the city is also not within a major metropolitan area (by major metro, I mean one with at least 2 million people).
Also Peoria is now significantly blacker and less Hispanic and Asian than the nation as a whole, and probably older too.
I like how the OP considered history and not just demographics for this topic, to make it different from the "most average place in the US" thread, where places like Joliet IL, Butler County OH, and Des Moines IA got the most votes. Though I think Joliet and Des Moines would still be good answers here, since they've followed the nation's lead in becoming more suburbanized, with somewhat of a more white-collar employment base.
I wonder if, for a real "microcosm of US history" vibe, we could find somewhere with notable pre-Civil War history that also has a sizable tech job market --- while also having gone through the "deindustrialization" and "suburbanization" phases, and also being somewhat demographically representative of the US.
Metro Boston would be the obvious choice there, although it's pretty weird in other ways. Metro Seattle/Tacoma could work too (although its pre-Civil War history is a bit marginal).
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