Rock the Vote

We owe the ‘90s a huge thank you for making things cool, from baggy jeans, brown lip liner, full blowouts and, most importantly, getting young people to vote. At this point, deadlines for requesting absentee ballots are hammered into our brains, and clearing our calendars on that important Tuesday in November to head to the polls feels normal. Would you be surprised if we told you we owe MTV for the youth voting craze?

Well, let’s back it up. MTV played a huge role in campaigning for young people to register to vote, but only after partnering with Rock the Vote, a movement started by music executives in 1990 in response to the censorship of hip-hop and rap artists. In 1985, the Parents Music Resource Center lobbied for parental guidance labels on albums that contained sexual, violent, or otherwise explicit content. Police arrested artists that used “obscene” lyrics, as well as the individuals who sold their records. Albums themselves began to be outlawed a few years later. Jeff Ayeroff, a former executive at Virgin Records, founded the Rock the Vote movement with partner Jordan Harris and assistant Beverly Lund after watching the Miami rap group, 2 Live Crew, get arrested with obscenity charges. Ayeroff could tell the censorship of the lyrics fit into a bigger picture; it wasn’t really about the sexually explicit lyrics, but rather the cultural disparity that threatened artists’ freedom of speech through suppression.

Conservative political leaders then turned music censorship into a key voting issue by weaponizing popular songs and albums to attract older voters who were scared of the genre’s messaging, while also ignoring the youth's interests. Ayeroff wanted to use his ample connections in the entertainment industry for good and campaign to register young voters.

“If I can market Madonna, Prince and the Talking Heads, I can market voting,” said Ayeroff. Ayeroff pitched the idea to the former president and CEO of MTV, Tom Freston, whose network already had millions of viewers. Ayeroff knew that music encompassed fashion, news and politics, so creating content that reflected these topics made sense for the network. 

Rock the Vote strategically targeted artists who were already filming their music videos with MTV and asked them to film Rock the Vote PSAs at no additional charge. Rock the Vote would allow artists to create a second piece of content within the music video shoot, asking for an additional 20 minutes to two hours to film the spot, depending on the complexity of the PSA. These segments with big-name artists borrowed stylistic elements from artists’ music videos, and they all aired on MTV’s donated air time ($20 million worth of it!). The goal of the campaign was to use artists admired by the youth to reframe voting into something cool. 

Each artist brought something new to the campaign. With the ability to capture the perspectives of so many people, the campaign tackled a range of emotions voters may feel about censorship and the need to act. 

“I thought I could energize people younger than me to understand that voting was as essential as washing your ass in the morning,” said Chuck D, an American rapper who created a PSA for Rock the Vote. “You don’t have to vote, but you can’t go around telling people that something stinks.”

Madonna had a controversial campaign where she dressed in red underwear and wrapped herself in an American flag to feature a rework of her hit “Vogue”: “Dr. King, Malcolm X / Freedom of speech is as good as sex… Don’t just sit there, let’s get to it / Speak your mind, there’s nothing to it.” Other notable artists included Michael Jackson, Deee-Lite, LL Cool J and R.E.M.

While Rock the Vote worked toward a good cause, it came under fire when a 1991 Rolling Stone article exposed that half the celebrities on the campaign didn’t vote. Madonna, draped in her American flag, wasn’t even registered. Artists lent their likeness to the movement because they trusted Ayeroff when he told them it was a good career move, rather than for their connection to the cause. 

“It adds another element of airtime, so to speak,” Ayeroff would say to them. “So if they ran your spot three or four times a day, that’s a couple of minutes. Very few people said no.” 

Despite a slip-up with hypocritical PSA speakers, Rock the Vote measured its first round of success with Clinton’s presidential win in 1992. A joint event between MTV and Rock the Vote titled Choose or Lose: Facing the Future with Bill Clinton allowed young voters to ask Clinton questions about things they really wanted to know about — like if he had ever done drugs or what his first rock ‘n roll experience was like. Clinton’s presidential win was partially attributed to the movement; voting among 18 to 24-year-olds increased by 37%. The win was considered a success, but Rock the Vote didn’t stop with Clinton’s presidency.

In the next election cycle, the movement continued, notably with Sheryl Crow’s PSA where she showed voters how to register to vote online — something brand new to this round of voting. After 1996, Rock the Vote moved past just using PSAs. Rock the Vote concerts were held in swing states and Rap the Vote, a 2004 concert tour with a rotating lineup featuring favorites like Snoop Dogg, Q-Tip, and the Black Eyed Peas, was created to target Black voters.

While voters face different issues 30 years later, Rock the Vote has stuck around and adapted to respond to new voting needs. The group has registered 12 million new voters and still continues to target those between the ages of 18 to 29. Its campaigning efforts have primarily shifted to Instagram with a major push to get youth to vote in midterm elections, as there is a pattern of disinterest in these elections. So, what’s the hold-up? Get out there and rock your vote.