On the Flip Side

摘要

People love a scandal. Without doubt, as soon as mankind was able to raise its collective head an inch above the level of safety on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, it not only found time to dish dirt, but invested a fair amount of energy scandal-watching. Even those who disdain back-fence gossip find themselves rubbernecking an accident on the freeway from time to time. And who better to gawk at in our appreciation of the bad and ugly than rock stars? Take the most recent spate of vindictive Michael Jackson voyeurism. The man has released one album in seven years and America still has an appetite for his destruction. Often times, we don't even want to like our rock stars, but we love to hate them. We expect them to be off the wall, and are thrilled when they're bad.