The Middle - Acoustic Version

This is about fitting in, and how you don't have to be the same as other people to be popular. In an interview with NME, Jim Adkins remembered reading an email from a young fan who wrote that she didn't fit in with the punk crowd at school because she "wasn't punk enough for them." He explained: "The tenet of the punk ideal - or, you know, the alternative, outside-the-mainstream, kind of ideal - is that you think yourself being more accepting ... I guess that tune was kind of a reaction to that, like you don't want to be friends with them anyway."

This was the breakout hit for Jimmy Eat World, who released their first album in 1994. The song climbed to #1 on the Modern Rock chart in 2001 and made #5 on the Hot 100 in the summer of 2002.

The song's music video was a three-minute coming-of-age flick directed by Paul Fedor. It features a fresh-faced, fully clothed teenage boy played by Josh Keleher, who attends a cool house party at which Jimmy Eat World are playing. The shindig is "clothing optional" and everyone, except the band, are in their underwear. The clip received plenty of play on MTV, especially on Total Request Live. Frontman Jim Adkins recalled to Billboard magazine in 2013 that the clip's concept was pretty much Fedor's. "It was a leap of trust to work with him," he added, "because it could've ended up... He tastefully told the story a little bit on the edge. But it could've gone really bad. We just had to trust him and it worked out."