Music to make you vote

Remember the Rock the Vote effort that seemed to dominate MTV programming during the Clinton/Bush 1992 elections and Clinton/Dole 1996 elections? It was a valiant attempt to increase voter turnout among young adults by using pop music and celebrity musicians to spark interest in politicians and hot-button issues, like abortion. On the surface, it seemed Rock the Vote was successful in perking the interests of 18-to-24-year-olds, but the numbers showed then as they still do now -- young people just don’t care enough to make it to the polls, no matter what mainstream band is pushing the candidates.

Rock the Vote was started in 1990 by Jeff Ayeroff, co-chief of the renowned powerhouse label Virgin Records, and since then, it has teamed up with big-name bands to organize concerts, voter registration drives and education efforts across the country and defeat political apathy among American youth. Currently, the group is working with the controversial Iraq war-hating Texan trio, the Dixie Chicks, which may put the non-profit political advocacy group into left-leaning light, but at least it has good clean elections intentions.

The Dixie Chicks answer questions and pose for
pictures at the Rock the Vote Press Conference
in 2003.

Unfortunately, Rock the Vote is much more active during the national presidential elections and not so much during state midterm elections. That doesn’t make Arizona’s gubernatorial election next week any less important. There will be a slew of weighty constitution-amending propositions on the Nov. 7 ballot, such as Proposition 107, which would define marriage as an institution between one man and one woman and denies benefits and rights to currently registered heterosexual and homosexual domestic partner couples.

If I were the president of Rock the Vote, I would get three politically charged bands to play a huge get-out-the-vote-rally at each of Arizona’s major state colleges. Those bands would be Sleater-Kinney, a feminist indie-rock trio from Olympia, Wash., Le Tigre, an all-out, in-your-face political commentary music explosion from New York, and the D.C.-based hardcore punk group Fugazi.