DemROCKracy

Rock the Vote, the nonprofit organization dedicated to using popular culture as a vehicle for voting awareness, has hooked up with the social networking giant, MySpace, in order to offer a battle of the bands competition like you’ve never seen before.

Rock the Vote, the nonprofit organization dedicated to using popular culture as a vehicle for voting awareness, has hooked up with the social networking giant, MySpace, in order to offer a battle of the bands competition like you’ve never seen before.

The mission: get all the fans that visit your band’s MySpace to register to vote.
The prize: the opening slot at Rock the Vote’s Ballot Bash concert at the Democratic National Convention, an aired performance on AT&T’s Blue Room, a new Gibson SG Standard Guitar and matching SG Reissue Bass.

So how will a battle of the bands get people patriotic? Well, when a band registers on Rock the Vote’s website, they can download a widget onto their MySpace page that will allow site visitors to register to vote. On August 14th at 12:00 a.m., the three bands with the most registered voters will be put up for a 24-hour popular vote on MySpace.

The winner will then be invited to open the Ballot Bash Concert Event on August 25th at the Democratic National Convention. Along with the other prizes, this is more than enough incentive for emerging bands to conjure Uncle Sam and recruit voters like nobody’s business.

Rock the Vote is serious about encouraging bands to encourage fans, and they’ve got the perks to back it up. The first 25 bands to register 150 people to vote will be put on a Rock the Vote playlist on TouchTunes digital jukeboxes, which exist in over 30,000 restaurants, bars and retailers nationwide. On July 15th, whichever band happens to be in first place will receive a Gibson SG Special Guitar, and both the runners-up for the 24-hour voting poll on August 14th will also receive the Gibson guitar. Rock the Vote claims to have registered 1.2 million new voters during the 2004 election, and they are clearly trying to top that number. Log in, tune in, and weigh in on this year’s presidential election.