Musicians are waging a war to get young Americans to vote. Every major recording artist in America seems to be grabbing their guitar and taking to the road to get people socially active. Although there are many musical tours out this year, one of the major contributors to the cause is MTV's Rock the Vote tour.
Sponsored by a host of products as well as MTV's 20 Million Loud campaign, the tour has been a motivator for capturing the youth vote by touring college campuses, exposing students to new talent and pushing the message ‘Get out and vote.' The tour bus, for the first time ever, made a stop in Houston to encourage college students to vote.
"Coming to Houston was very important," said Lindsey Berman, tour manager for Rock the Vote. "Houston is an urban stronghold and could really affect the outcome of the election. We wanted to try to specifically reach out to those students to gain their interest in voting, because after the last election, we learned that every vote does, in fact, count."
The original program for the Houston stop included a full concert with the entire artist roster at the University of Houston. But because of scheduling conflicts, the event was scaled down to a voter registration rally at UH-Downtown. This factor did not stop the artists involved with the tour from wanting to be heard.
Ben Jelen, a 25-year-old Maverick Recording artist, as well as a classically trained musician, believes strongly in Rock the Vote and the underlying meaning behind it.
"I want to get as many people out and just make them aware and encourage them to vote," Jelen said. "We need to vote so that we can have a voice in the election. Don't be apathetic; you have to get out there and do something. If I could get one person more to get out there and vote it would mean something."
Jelen is involved with a host of social causes and wrote a song titled "Criminal" that points out how people turn their heads and ignore the downfalls of their surroundings.
"[When I wrote ‘criminal'] I had just watched a documentary on AIDS in Africa, and I just completed a book on Holocaust," Jelen said. "So the song is kind of stating how we should never let things like this happen again. It just bothers me that people can be completely ignorant of social happenings."
Jelen is not the only artist who wants to promote awareness and change. Dan Dyer, who is signed on Roxie Records/Reprise Records, also believes that the youth of America should get out and take action. Roxie Records is superstar Lenny Kravitz's label, and he and Dyer are good friends.
"Me and Lenny are family," Dyer said. "Whenever I need him I can always call him up or Paul Rucker (Lenny's manager and partner in Roxie Records), and it's always great to be able to do that."
Dyer was scheduled to perform on all the dates set for the Rock the Vote Tour and was there when the tour concluded at the University of Wisconsin.
"We just finished that last Friday," Dyer said. "It was a good turnout. It was freezing cold, they're saying they estimated at about 15,000 people that were in attendance. I felt that Rock the Vote was a cool attempt, or a cool way, to encourage young people to vote. The artists weren't trying to sway anybody politically. I definitely wasn't and I didn't see any of that happening. We just tried to encourage people to vote and get them active and involved."
Overall, both artists felt that this tour was effective and helped people become a little more socially aware. Creating tours that do not influence voters one way or the other but still encourage them to voice their vote is the trend for the year. The real test of its effectiveness will be felt Nov. 2 at the polls.
For more information on the Rock the Vote tour, visit their Web site at www. Rockthevote.com.
For more information on Jelen, you can visit Rock the Vote's Web site or his personal Web site, www.benjelen.com.
For more information on Dyer, go to www.wbr.com. Or if you're interested in their albums, Jelen's "Give it All Away" and Dyer's "What Lies Beneath" are in stores now.
Click here to view movie using quicktime (Macintosh).Click here to view movie using windows media player (PC).
