Sometimes, finding out about the world around you can lead to depressing revelations about man’s nature.

Take the case of pseudo-house music creatures Milli Vanilli and Fab Morvan are not the actual singers on the seven million-selling album.

The two were hired for their looks, told to keep quiet and support the product.

Faced with the difficult choice between fame and integrity, the kids took the money and ran. In fact, they ran all the way to the Grammys, where pangs of guilt didn’t prevent Rob and Fab from accepting 1989’s Best New Artist award.

Farian revealed the fraud only when Fab and Rob told him they wanted to be the actual singers on the upcoming album. Farian decided to spill the beans the, although he declined to identify the real singers.

Why the real Milli Vanilli hasn’t said anything before while millions of dollars were going to the voiceless duo is anybody’s guess. Maybe they’re trapped in Kuwait.

It would be one thing if these cretins were unique to the annals of music history. Unfortunately, fraud and deception are common tools of trade in the music industry.

The Archies, the Partridge Family and Klaatu paved the way for Milli Vanilli by claiming to be live cartoon characters, a real family and the Beatles, respectively. All were studio musician frauds.

Moreover, just because someone really sings under their own name doesn’t mean anything they do comes originally out of their own fervid brains.

Remember “This Night Will Last Forever” by urban pop stylist Billy Joel? This ditty was actually ripped off from a Beethoven piano sonata. Heavy Metal Grammy winner Jethro Tull was not above swiping a tune – the Iam Anderson flute trademark “Bouree” is straight from J.S. Bach.

Neither of these musicians saw fit to credit their classic mentors.

Or take the case of poor George Harrison. Ever wonder about the mysterious resemblance between the artificial religious ballad “My Sweet Lord” and the tune that gave the world the term “doo-lang,” the Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine”?

A federal court did in 1976, and asked Harrison to pay song publisher Bright Music $587,000 for “unintentional plagiarism.”

There might be many reasons for this loss of integrity in the music world, but it’s possible it stems from disillusionment with this country’s other leaders, such as its presidents.

Not that they’re more corrupt – people expect corruption in their leaders. It might be the ghostwritten speeches presidents use that make people think plagiarism is a modern virtue.

FDR’s “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” and JFK’s “Ask not whay your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” are falsely credited to the ex-presidents in quotation books.

Kennedy even managed to scam a 1957 Pulitzer for “Profiles in Courage,” a book he was heavily involved with except when it came time to write it.

There is cause for hope, though. By all accounts, ex-president Richard Nixon really did think up “I am not a crook” all by himself.