“Safe,” the song featured in The Most Vicious Cycle, was written the day after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. Sage was also a high school student at the time when he cowrote the song with his sister popstar Kesha. “Safe” is about what it feels like to go to school when gun violence in America happens so often. Along with helping write the song, Kesha contributed vocals to the track. So did Chika, an up-and-coming rapper who offered her perspective as a former inner city student.

In the United States, gun violence is a vicious cycle. Shootings are followed by protests, thoughts and prayers, public debate, and politics. Then it all happens again because politicians accept money from the gun lobby to maintain the status quo. The only way to end this cycle was to encourage young people to vote out pro gun politicians in the 2018 midterm elections. In the 2014 midterms, only 19.9% of young people voted. By targeting young voters and increasing their turnout, we had the power to change the results of the midterm elections.

To change voter turnout numbers, March for Our Lives activists launched “Vote For Our Lives”. The campaign featured a music video of a Kesha song, written the day after a mass shooting. The video dramatizes the familiar cycle of gun violence and urges viewers to #VoteforOurLives. It repeats three times to emphasize the repetition of gun violence, and implies that it could go on forever, if we don’t take action. The film launched three weeks before the election on MTV and was spread across social media via the artists and activists. Youth voter turnout in 2018 increased to 31%.

Following the Parkland massacre, the 23rd shooting of 2018, we sought to end the cycle of gun violence by getting young people to vote out pro-gun politicians in the midterm elections. Our target audience was young Americans between the ages of 18 and 25.

On October 12, 2018, three weeks before the U.S. midterm elections, March for Our Lives activists posted The Most Vicious Cycle across their social feeds. Pop star Kesha, her brother Sage and up-and-coming rapper Chika, the three artists featured in the music video’s song, posted the video across their social channels as well. The Most Vicious Cycle also aired on the Viacom billboard in Times Square. To coincide with the launch of the music video, Kesha penned an essay for Teen Vogue in which she announced her partnership with March for Our Lives.

The Most Vicious Cycle made headlines on sites such as RollingStone, MTV, HuffPost, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, The Hill, Out, MTV, Breitbart, and Nylon.

Also, in the 2018 elections, youth voter turnout increased from 19.9% in 2014 to 31%, influencing elections across the United States. In February 2019, the U.S. House of Representative passed its first major piece of gun control legislation in decades.