usc law family
THEY WANT YOU…
TO VOTE
Gould alumni boost civic participation with Rock the Vote and I am a voter By Julie Riggott
In 1990, Rock the Vote forever changed the political landscape with the simple yet revolutionary idea that young people should have political power. The nonpartisan nonprofit’s efforts to
engage youth in politics through pop culture, art, music and technology made such an impact — 8 million voter registrations over 30 years — that the name itself became a powerful verb in the political lexicon. Indeed, after the 100-year high in voter turnout for the 2018 midterm elections, in which 36 percent of citizens ages 18 to 29 reported voting, a Washington Post headline proclaimed: “Young people actually rocked the vote in 2018.” The man behind the idea for Rock the Vote is Jeff Ayeroff ( JD 1971), a longtime music industry executive formerly with A&M Records, Warner Bros. Records and Virgin Records America. Escalating artist censorship in the 1980s provoked him to make his mark in civic engagement, though his political fervor flared up in his student days. As an undergraduate in political science at UCLA during the Vietnam War, Ayeroff was, as he puts it, a “fellow traveler” of Students for a Democratic Society. After graduation, he aimed for a career in the music industry and found some of the best-known music lawyers were USC alumni. That led to enrolling at USC Gould. A self-described “long-haired leftist kid,” he served as the student representative to the faculty, but then “got thrown out for shutting down the school during the invasion of Cambodia.” “I was reinstated when Professor Gary Bellows, my friend, represented me to the faculty,” Ayeroff recalls. After jobs at “small but interesting” entertainment firms, Ayeroff landed at A&M. Later, as founder and co-chair of Virgin’s U.S. label, he was inspired to rally more than 50 fellow record label executives to form Rock the Vote as a retort to the Parents Music Resource Center (which
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advocated for parental advisory stickers on music with violent, drug-related or sexual content) and a subsequent obscenity arrest of members of the hip-hop group 2 Live Crew. Offended by the idea of parental advisory stickers, Ayeroff was the perfect foil for them. “I wouldn’t sign an act that needed a sticker,” he says. “2 Live Crew was an act I would not have signed, but it’s that liberal adage of: ‘I don’t think like you do, but I don’t like censorship, so I’ll fight for your right to do it.’” Ayeroff, a music video pioneer who has worked with iconic artists like Madonna, Prince, Fiona Apple and Jennifer Lopez, secured Rock the Vote’s first partnership with MTV, promoting the message that “Censorship Is Un-American.” One of Rock the Vote’s biggest accomplishments, in his opinion, was backing the Motor Voter bill (the National Voter Registration Act of 1993) allowing voters to register at DMVs. The group also led the way in civic technology and created a groundbreaking voting app. Thirty years later, Rock the Vote is still the largest youth organization to register young voters. Its current partnerships include Brands for Democracy and Athletes Rock the Vote. “Youth voting has become, as you see with Bernie Sanders right now, part of the lexicon of politics, which is what I set out to do 30 years ago,” says Ayeroff, now retired from both Rock the Vote and the music industry. “Rock the Vote invented the idea that kids could change an election. Bill Clinton told me that he thinks Rock the Vote made the difference in him being elected.”
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, CIVIC EDUCATION Engaging voters is a constant challenge, with registration requirements varying by state and misinformation campaigns proliferating on social media, says Professor Franita Tolson, vice dean for faculty and academic affairs and an expert in election and constitutional law.
