Yuppie Culture in the 1980s

"Yuppie" - an abbreviation of the 'Young Upwardly mobile professionals, an economic movement prominent in the 1980s.


While some argue that remnants and attitudes of the Yuppie era live on in the United Kingdom, it could still be argued that the same could be said of America also. Yet, if observations are made about the actual Yuppie culture and the decade it emerged, many assumptions explaining its rise can be made. However, these reasons become a little irrelevant when discussing what a Yuppie actually is. They were substantial earners, typically above $40,000 per annum, part of the baby boom generation (1946-64), and self-seekers; only concerned for their individual prospects.


http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id295.htm
The above article provides a brief description of what Yuppie culture is, who they were and how they emerged. The article discusses how many were ex-hippies and had transformed from supposed selflessness to ultimate consumer greed. It also makes links to the notions of Yuppie economics and dynamics of Reagan's America, in which self-interest would be the only way to thrive and earn money to support a luxurious lifestyle which the western world now promoted as the ideal.

The image above shows the epitome of what it meant to be a part of this culture and shows also a divide been professionalism and social mobility; including a Gucci briefcase, Sony Walkman, sports gear, etc. Yuppies lived out consumer culture and designer ideologies which made them the idealistic politically conservative white professional, but also the liberalist who still had notions and memories of the Hippie lifestyle. Yuppie culture was short-lived as it was blamed for the market crash of 1987, and was therefore seen as an ineffective method of being an accomplished socialite worker of the 1980s.


The article states that "according to the leftist Fredric Jameson, "a new petit bourgeoisie [whose] cultural practices and values ... have articulated useful dominant ideological and cultural paradigm" for American society in the 1980s. Yuppies were lambasted as excessively consumptive in their pursuit of the American Dream without much regard for those left behind." What this highlights is the rise of a new American Dream; one which can only be for the potentially liberal elite with conservative ideologies also, truly a hallmark of Reaganism.


Although the demise of Yuppie culture was fast and undesirable, there remain remnants of the consumer culture it embedded in the ambition of a luxury western existence (Atwal and Williams, 2009). Both the article and the picture demonstrate what it meant to be a part of Yuppie culture in the 1980s. It also states that "[o]bsession with career was a hallmark of Yuppie culture, a concept which is also shown in the image; but beyond this is the notion that it is not much to be obsessed with your job, but you must do it in style also. Yuppie culture was not just an ideological state, but was a concept which could work its way into the music industry, economics, social problems, the film industry, literary works, etc. Published in 2000, this article is a great way to objectively look back at the Yuppie era in a perspective of nostalgia.


Notes
1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1269526/Thatcher-era-yuppies-love-money-else.html <accessed 27/01/2017>
2. http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id295.htm <accessed 27/01/2017>
3. Atwal, Glyn and Alistair Williams. “Luxury Brand Marketing – the Experience Is Everything!” Journal of Brand Management 16, no. 5 (February 13, 2009): 338–46. doi:10.1057/bm.2008.48.