In October 2004, some of the biggest names in music - Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Neil Young, John Fogerty, Dixie Chicks, John Mellencamp and the Dave Matthews Band among them - came together for a unique undertaking, a tour designed to encourage American citizens in to register and vote in the upcoming presidential election.
The Vote For Change tour was deliberately routed across eight 'swing' states - Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - in the hope that new and first-time voters could have the opportunity to help decide whether incumbent Republican President George W. Bush or his Democratic Party opponent Senator Johny Kerry would be elected on November 2, 2004.
"What is the only institution more powerful than the United States government - one that can move things in a different direction?" Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder asked in Rolling Stone magazine. "It's the American people. It's the voters. That's what I feel most strongly about: encouraging people who don't normally vote to understand their responsibility."
Vedder was among a number of vocalists on the tour who urged voters to get behind Massachusetts Senator Kerry on election day, but ultimately George W. Bush was returned to the Oval Office, capturing 50.7% of the votes cast, and claiming 286 electoral votes compared to Kerry's 251 votes. It was subsequently reported that each of the swing states voted in a manner consistent with pre-election (and pre-tour) polls - four for Bush, and four for Kerry - so exactly how much impact the Vote For Change concerts had upon the outcome is difficult to ascertain.
