I generally have a hard time feeling sorry for music executives.

Even though their nonprofit baby Rock the Vote is $700,000 in debt, I still don’t feel sorry for them. They had it coming.

In 1990, when Rock the Vote founder Jeff Ayeroff created the organization to encourage youth voting with the help of the music industry’s visibility, his intentions were about as pure as Paris Hilton. In actuality, Ayeroff was more concerned with deluding the youth into listening to music of artists he was trying to promote rather than increasing political awareness. For the record, Ayeroff is also the co-chief of Virgin Records, although not such a virgin when it comes to promoting the special interests of the music industry.

But Ayeroff is not entirely to blame for the organization’s misdirected priorities, since other music executives from Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group make up a number of the board members who manage the nonprofit. Gather that many profit-thirsty people in a room together and they’re bound to lose sight of the organization’s ideals at some point. So before Justin Timberlake cries them a river over the sorry state of their artist-promoting political machine, and we all get duped again, let us pause to look around a bit.

It seemed like a nice idea when artists like Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Good Charlotte, Alanis Morisette, Joss Stone, Robbie Williams, the Foo Fighters, Korn and many more used their celebrity status to get young voters between the ages of 18 and 24 to head to the polls and cast their votes. Unfortunately, Rock the Vote compromised many of its goals as a nonprofit to aid record executives trying to give certain artists more publicity.

Frighteningly, former president of the organization, Jehmu Greene, even admits this.

“Board members wanted to,” said Greene in a February Los Angeles Times article. “But sometimes it was way too expensive, or would send the wrong message, like having a rock band play when we’re trying to register kids into hip-hop.”

Registering the wrong voters, however, was just one of several drawbacks of the organization’s ties to the music industry. The article specifically mentioned Ayeroff’s request for Rock the Vote to share in paying the cost of flying Green Day back to its Asian tour, in exchange for the group’s performance at a Rock the Vote event. While in this case Rock the Vote refused to pay the $120,000, deals like this, which frequently occur in the music industry, shed light on Rock the Vote’s less-recognized purpose.

“It’s normal to have tension between entertainment goals and political effectiveness,” Ayeroff said. “So, yeah, bad decisions were made.”

Keep in mind that both Sony BMG and Warner Music, companies whose executives sit on the Rock the Vote board, have a history of using “alternative” methods to promote their artists. Just last June, Sony BMG agreed to pay a hefty $10 million settlement over accusations that the company practiced “pay-for-play,” giving illegal bribes to radio stations like the local Channel 93.3 in exchange for it playing certain artists. Warner Music paid $5 million for its “pay-for-play” practices.

Now if only we could just get them to play fair.

We cannot, however, place the blame entirely on Rock the Vote. At some point, the American youth has to admit its own unawareness when it comes to most types of political issues. It has long been that 18- to 24-year-olds turn out in the lowest numbers at the polls, as was the case in the 2004 elections, when only 47 percent voted. This compares to 69 percent voter turnout for those between the ages of 45 and 54, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

Although voter turnout among youths did increase in 2004, there is no concrete proof that Rock the Vote played any role in the 11 percent.

While it’s unfortunate that young people need to be coerced into exercising their democratic right to vote, there is a more pressing issue. More disconcerting than a group of young people disinterested in voting is a group of young people so unaware that its being taken advantage of by music moguls.

Ignorance of Rock the Vote’s muddled priorities, however, merely represents a greater apathy in the American youth. We generally tend to be too concerned with immediate gratification to pay much attention to the results of our love of consumerism and political indifference.

Just look at President George W. Bush’s current proposal for tax cuts in the budget, which calls for $1.5 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years. Very few 18-year-olds will stand up and argue against them, mostly because they think they have little or no effect. Sadly, our generation will likely suffer the consequences of a growing deficit of more than $400 billion a year.

At least with Rock the Vote, as defective as it may be, the youth stand to gain some immediate reward. Such is not the case when it comes to national politics. We have to ask ourselves, however, if the little incentive we receive from indulging in the whims of the music industry is truly worth our pride.

If we find ourselves answering yes because we’re so smitten with half-naked images of Madonna, well then, we’ve got another thing coming.