Trey Anastasio of Phish, Big Boi, Dave Matthews and another 200 celebrities and musicians today (Sept. 25) posted photos on Facebook and Twitter, urging fans to register to vote.
The social media campaign was organized by HeadCount, a nonpartisan group that's been sending volunteers to register music fans to vote at more than 800 events, including concerts featuring Jay-Z, Pearl Jam and members of the Grateful Dead.
By early afternoon today, HeadCount had registered 30,000 new voters in the field and expected to see an equal number register online, a spokesman for the group told TechNewsDaily.
HeadCount has also polled 10,000 music fans about their political views. Democrats were more likely than Republicans to attend more than 10 concerts per year (36 percent versus 26 percent), but libertarians topped them both at 43 percent.
While most fans had no trouble identifying themselves as Democrat, Republican or libertarian, their views on what the nation's priorities should be weren't all that different. Overall, 44 percent agreed "investing in education and the future" should be America’s highest priority, the most popular choice among five possible answers.
However, when asked to name "America's top villains," party lines became apparent. Forty-four percent of Democrats chose "Wall Street and Corporate America." Republicans split their responses among "Tax-and-spend liberals," "Biased media" and "All politicians, regardless of party."
As for the overall state of America, the consensus among 71 percent of fans was "It’s messed up and we better do something about it."
About 200 events are planned for the last few weeks before Election Day on Nov. 6. However, 24 states require voters to register by Oct. 9. Music fans can volunteer to staff voter registration stations on HeadCount.org.
