The trend for giving back and doing more to help humanity continues among youth culture in North America, and not just in global causes, but also local. Every 3 seconds, for example, someone in the United Statesneeds blood, but only a small percentage of donations actually come from Southern California. To change this, a number of top musicians leading trends in various new subcultures in music and devoted fans are coming to forefront through a program called “Music Saves Lives,” developed by Russel Hornbeek of theAmerican Red Cross, which kicked off last weekend in Los Angeles, CA.

The Music Saves Lives program teamed up the with Vans Warped Tour 2006 with a goal to educate young blood donors and raise the blood supply. The goal, according to Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, is to bring awareness and blood to those in need this summer by targeting 17 to 25-year-old blood donors to boost donations.

This is how it works: Supported by many top artists, Music Saves Lives provides unreleased, rare tracks, b-sides, and acoustic tracks on a compilation CD called “Saving Lives Never Sounded So Good” which is given to those who sign up at a series of college and high school blood drives all over Southern Californiafrom now until July, 02006. MySpace, also a huge sponsor, has dedicated an entire music page to the cause with band links.

Sponsors of the campaign include the Vans Warped Tour, Epitaph, Monster Energy Drink, MySpace, Alternative Press, Indie 103.1 , 91X FM, Side Cho Records. Bands on “Save Lives Never Sounded So Good” include: Motion City Soundtrack, Yellowcard, Plain White T's, All-American Rejects, Run Doris Run, The Matches, Bleed The Dream, Tokyo Rose, The Starting Line, Cartel, Mae, Stacy Clark, Sherwood, The Spill Canvas, This is Me Smiling, Copeland, Angelas Dish, Over It, Street Drum Corp, The Smash Up. For more information go to: http://www.myspace.com/musicsaveslives.