Views: Do we actually want rock stars to be nice?

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So, Kanye West hurts a 19-year-old’s feelings and America is very, very disappointed in the Chicago rapper.

Celebrities, MTV honchos, bloggers and even the president have hopped on the anti-Kanye bandwagon.

In case you missed Sunday’s water cooler moment at the MTV Video Music Awards: Taylor Swift, having just won female video of the year, got upstaged by Kanye. Taking the microphone away from the young star, the Chicago rapper brazenly spoke his mind about who should have taken the award. She walked away, visibly upset, her acceptance speech ruined.

Wait. Scratch that. I’d say that her acceptance speech was improved. Instead of some “golly gee” dreck about Swift’s manager and “the fans, oh gosh, the fans,” something interesting happened on live TV.

Not that I saw it happen live. Because MTV doesn’t show videos, I watch them online. I figure I owe it to them to watch the highlights of their awards show online, too.

Anyway, for the first time in a while, an MTV jaw-dropping moment wasn’t rehearsed, and now, everyone’s outraged. Kelly Clarkson wrote a scathing blog entry, Pink called Kanye “a waste” and almost every celebrity post-interview included an admonition. Bad Kanye, bad!

But don’t all of you        – MTV and its co-conspirators – try to stage something like this all the time? (See: That stupid Sacha Baron Cohen and Eminem stunt a couple months ago at the movie awards.) Isn’t something like this exactly what you really want?

Heaven forbid someone does something spontaneous on MTV, gets out of their seat, starts thinking about quality over popularity, steps outside the predetermined schedule and exhibits some vestige of rock ’n’ roll swagger for just a couple seconds.

Apparently, Kanye was unaware that the award stage is sacred. So were some others. (See: Rage Against the Machine’s Tim Commerford, the Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch and that “Soy Bomb” dude.) I don’t remember any such vitriol then. Not from fans, not from network execs, not from stars.

Is it because the “victim” is a girl this time?

Perhaps that’s why Pink is rapping Kanye’s knuckles for bad behavior, despite basing her entire persona on being loud, crude and rude. Go ahead, boast about your “so what” attitude on your corporate album and your rock ’n’ roll lifestyle on the Clear Channel radio airwaves, but don’t interrupt anyone. Ever.

No, that’s mean. That’s a cardinal sin in the sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll rule book.

Now I’m not just defending Kanye’s actions, I’m celebrating them. He’s one of very few celebrities who don’t appear to have been coached by their handlers to say the right things at the right moments about the right people. He’s got no filter, no strings, no qualms about being candid, sometimes annoyingly so.
Isn’t that what rock stars should be? Do we really want them to behave?

Whether or not you agreed with Kanye’s “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” comment in 2005, there were millions thinking that same thing who didn’t have the opportunity or the guts to say it on national television. Love him or hate him, treasure his music or trash it, but admit that the charade of celebrity is more interesting with him going off the Teleprompter and ripping down the curtain every once in a while.

Even his mea culpa on “The Jay Leno Show” on Monday night was more interesting than you’d expect. Appearing fairly unrehearsed, Kanye apologized, said his piece and did something I’ve never seen on a talk show: He took time to think before answering a question.

After Leno asked him what West’s mother would have thought (in some sort of weird “gotcha” moment), Kanye didn’t answer, but sat silent, pensive, trying to keep his emotions from pouring out. A more practiced –  artificial – star would have had a succinct, humble rejoinder at the ready.

During the short interview, Kanye also talked about taking some time off to reflect on who he is and what he does. Not a terrible idea. I just hope he won’t be gone too long.

The celebrity circus wouldn’t be the same without him.