Robos in Paradise: Aging rockers embrace family values and bourgeois respectability

Kay S. Hymowitz

Now that MTV's The Osbournes' second season is upon us, it's time to take full measure of the secret of the hit series' appeal: roboism--or rocker bourgeois respectability. Like a number of other former wild things, Ozzie Osbourne is a countercultural version of David Brooks's bobo, the bourgeois bohemian who affects the cultural style of Montmarte but lives like Main Street. Ozzie and his ilk are the rocker bourgeoisie who look like vampires (or streetwalkers) but live like PTA vice presidents.

Still, there's more to the robo phenomenon than gray hair and a maturing music industry...

Read the entire article on the City Journal website.