By 1990, youth voter turnout in the United States had been declining for nearly two decades. When the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 in 1971, 48.3 percent of eligible young voters cast a ballot. By the late 1980s, that figure had dropped to just over 33 percent. Young people were disengaged from electoral politics, and neither political party nor the mainstream media was making significant efforts to reach them.
Rock the Vote was founded in Los Angeles in 1990 by Jeff Ayeroff, co-chief of Virgin Records, along with other music industry executives concerned about legislative threats to artistic freedom, including proposed mandatory warning labels on recorded music. Their initial calculation was straightforward: if young people did not vote, they had no political constituency worth protecting. The organization's first campaign featured public service announcements from prominent musicians denouncing censorship and urging young people to register.
For the 1992 presidential election, Rock the Vote expanded its focus beyond the music industry and partnered with MTV on a campaign called "Choose or Lose." The organization set up voter registration tables at concerts. They ran public service announcements on MTV. They also lobbied for the National Voter Registration Act and recruited celebrities to appeal directly to young audiences. The campaign worked to reframe voting as culturally relevant rather than a civic obligation. Bill Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate, appeared on MTV and engaged directly with young voters in ways that previous candidates had not.
The results were significant. The 18- to 24-year-old voter turnout rose to 38 percent in 1992, the highest rate since the voting age was lowered, and the first time in decades that youth participation had grown by double digits. Clinton himself credited Rock the Vote and MTV with contributing to his victory. Rock the Vote also helped secure passage of the National Voter Registration Act in 1993, which simplified registration procedures nationwide.
Youth turnout declined again in subsequent elections. By 2000, only 28.7 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds voted, despite a new Rock the Vote campaign that registered more than 565,000 voters online. Analysts attributed the drop largely to both major party candidates showing little interest in courting the youth vote that cycle.
