Rock The Vote Organization

Grainy black-and-white footage fills the television screen with energetic young men slashing and weaving on skateboards across the concrete and curbs in Santa Cruz. A narrator breaks into the punk-rock soundtrack: "Call them what you want, but these guys asked the City Council for a skateboard park--and got it." With that, the skaters disappear from the streets and instead soar above a half-pipe ramp. A message appears: "Rock the Nation."

Mark Bell didn't quite fit in the demographic pool that MTV, the music video channel, was hoping to attract Saturday at Cal State Northridge. The 45-year-old dad, who has more than 25 years of voting under his belt, was drawn to the scene after leaving his son at a nearby soccer game. "I just saw this political stuff and said 'Whoa, dude, this is my kind of stuff,' " said Bell, a self-described political junkie.

Sheryl Crow wants your vote -- and figures she can get it for a song. The Grammy Award-winning singer is offering a free download of her politically charged tune "Gasoline" to anyone who logs onto the Rock the Vote website or anyone on the group's mailing list. And the first 50,000 people who register three friends to vote will get a free digital copy of her album "Detours." "I hope people wake up and emotionally engage in issues," Crow said.

For more than a decade, the youth-and-civics group Rock the Vote has been the coolest kid on the political playground. Founded in Los Angeles in 1990 with the goal of politically empowering the MTV generation, Rock the Vote quickly became a cause celebre among Democratic and entertainment power brokers. At rock concerts, on college campuses and with ads featuring a near-naked Madonna, the group helped register millions of young voters.

With predictions that young voters could decide the presidential election in November, efforts are shifting into high gear to get Americans under 30 registered and taking part in the political process. And with the Grammy Awards coming Sunday, such efforts within the music industry are especially ratcheting up this week. A DJs Rock the Vote show Thursday at Avalon Hollywood with Paul Van Dyk will promote voter participation to the dance and electronic music communities.

In red letters, the e-mail read, "YOU HAVE BEEN DRAFTED." The startling announcement was followed by smaller print: "You are hereby ordered for induction into the Armed Forces of the United States, and to report at a polling a place near you on November 2, 2004 at 7:00 a.m." Officials at Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan but generally liberal organization founded by musicians, sent the bogus draft card to 650,000 people last month.

There was a time when voting was cool. A time when a presidential candidate stumped for support by playing his sax; when MTV, Madonna and R.E.M. were adding to the political discourse and candidates were addressing the concerns of young adults. A time -- a decade ago now -- when Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan organization that registers young people to vote, was creating a buzz.

Move over, MTV. CNN, whose viewers are mostly from the older range of the age spectrum, will be co-host of its first Rock the Vote event, a Democratic presidential candidate forum. Rock the Vote, which works to get young people involved in the political process, more often chooses the more demographically compatible MTV as a partner. The Nov. 4 forum, in Boston, will be moderated by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, with questions coming from the youth audience. -- Elizabeth Jensen

They're not normally even in the same universe, CNN viewers -- median age: 61 -- and the Rock the Vote crowd, the 18- to 24-year-olds whom the nonpartisan nonprofit works to engage in the political process. Still, organizers are hoping they can make the two worlds collide on Tuesday in Boston, in what's being billed as the first-ever debate among multiple candidates before an audience exclusively made up of young people.

So, that skate festival that was held in Burbank on Saturday? The one that boasted free burgers and gear giveaways? And where two burly security guards decided where teenagers could skate based on their eye color? It was all a ruse. The Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission and Rock the Vote took over Valley Park to film an anti-discrimination public service announcement that will run on television and the Internet.