Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Nostalgia Central
    • Home
    • Blog
      • Lists
    • Television
      • TV by Decade
        • TV – 1950s
        • TV – 1960s
        • TV – 1970s
        • TV – 1980s
        • TV – 1990s
      • Comedy
      • Drama
      • Kids TV
      • Variety
      • News & Sport
      • Advertisements
    • Music
      • Music by Decade
        • Music – 1950s
        • Music – 1960s
        • Music – 1970s
        • Music – 1980s
        • Music – 1990s
      • Artists – A to K
        • Artists – A
        • Artists – B
        • Artists – C
        • Artists – D
        • Artists – E
        • Artists – F
        • Artists – G
        • Artists – H
        • Artists – I
        • Artists – J
        • Artists – K
      • Artists – L to Z
        • Artists – L
        • Artists – M
        • Artists – N
        • Artists – O
        • Artists – P
        • Artists – Q
        • Artists – R
        • Artists – S
        • Artists – T
        • Artists – U
        • Artists – V
        • Artists – W
        • Artists – X
        • Artists – Y
        • Artists – Z
      • Artists – 0 to 9
      • Genres
      • Music on Film & TV
      • One-Hit Wonders
      • Playlists
      • Online Radio
    • Movies
      • Movies by Decade
        • Movies – 1950s
        • Movies – 1960s
        • Movies – 1970s
        • Movies – 1980s
        • Movies – 1990s
      • Movies – 0 to 9
      • Movies – A to K
        • Movies – A
        • Movies – B
        • Movies – C
        • Movies – D
        • Movies – E
        • Movies – F
        • Movies – G
        • Movies – H
        • Movies – I
        • Movies – J
        • Movies – K
      • Movies – L to Z
        • Movies – L
        • Movies – M
        • Movies – N
        • Movies – O
        • Movies – P
        • Movies – Q
        • Movies – R
        • Movies – S
        • Movies – T
        • Movies – U
        • Movies – V
        • Movies – W
        • Movies – X
        • Movies – Y
        • Movies – Z
    • Pop Culture
      • Fads
      • Toys & Games
      • Fashion
      • Decor
      • Food & Drink
      • People
      • Technology
      • Transport
    • Social History
      • 1950s Year by Year
      • 1960s Year by Year
      • 1970s Year by Year
      • 1980s Year by Year
      • 1990s Year by Year
      • Events
    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Pop Culture»Fads
    Fads People 3 Mins Read

    Yuppies

    Share
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email

    What rich 1980s white-collar workers were called in the decade when the western world revelled in unapologetic materialism.

    Yuppies (an acronym for “Young Urban Professionals”) ostentatiously stocked their New York-style apartments with the most expensive designer appliances and the latest in high-end stereo and video gear and drove to work in shiny new Benzes and Beemers.

    Their clothing was designer clothing, their furniture was designer furniture . . . even their coffee was designer coffee!

    In the USA and Britain, the Reagan and Thatcher governments’ barely concealed contempt for the poor gave tacit approval to those who viewed abundance as their inalienable right, and movies like Oliver Stone’s Wall Street (1987) served as an anthem and a call to arms for the nouveau rich “upwardly-mobile”.

    Nearly 75% of yuppie households were childless couples (Yuppies often worked so hard that they had little time for sex and more than one couple admitted that they had an answering machine at home just so they could talk to each other at least once a day!).

    yuppie_advert2Unsurprisingly, a new yuppie sub-set emerged called DINKs (“Double Income – No Kids”).

    Married or not, DINK couples worked long hours at professional/managerial jobs, postponed having children for the sake of their careers.

    These couples had lots of disposable income which they used in consuming conspicuously.

    The work of talented young writers like Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis and Jill Eisenstadt created a yuppie literary explosion, McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City was a huge success in 1984 and became a hit movie in 1988 starring Michael J. Fox, Phoebe Cates and Kiefer Sutherland.

    With witty and fast-paced writing, McInerney subtly portrayed the downside of frenetic yuppie existence through a protagonist who resorts to “Bolivian marching powder” (cocaine) to help him keep up with a life in the fast lane.

    Bret Easton Ellis explored the foibles of the “New Lost Generation” in his bestseller, Less Than Zero (1985), while Eisenstadt scored big with From Rockaway in 1987. But not everyone was enamoured of the yuppies, and “Die Yuppie Scum” bumper stickers were not an uncommon sight.

    According to Newsweek, 1984 was the “Year of the Yuppie”. Yuppies were lambasted as excessively consumptive in their pursuit of “the dream” without any real regard for those left behind.

    But the yuppie heyday was to be short-lived – critics gleefully described the stock market crash of October 1987 as the consequence of yuppie folly and the beginning of the yuppie’s end.

    “Yuppie” quickly became a derogatory term and as the decade came to a close, the term became synonymous with greed, self-absorption and a lack of social conscience – and no one would admit to being one.

    A popular joke at the time celebrated that, unlike pigeons, yuppies could no longer make a deposit on a Porsche . . .

    yuppies_nigellaBut in hindsight yuppies weren’t all bad. Yuppies led the way in gentrifying urban neighbourhoods, turning warehouse lofts and run-down brownstones into valuable real estate, and there can be little doubt that the yuppie phenomenon had a lasting cultural impact.

    As Hendrik Hertzberg, editor of New Republic wrote, “The fact is that . . . yuppies have better taste than yesterday’s well-off young adult Americans, are less ostentatious in their display of wealth, . . . set a far better example of healthful living, and are more tolerant.”

    TRIVIA NOTE
    The Young Urban Professional lady engrossed in a snog at the top right of the picture (right) is none other than future posh totty cookery queen Nigella Lawson.

    Related Posts

    • Unisex
      Unisex
      The Unisex fashion movement largely came and went in one year: 1968. The trend began on the Paris runways, where…
    • Red Wedge (1986)
      Red Wedge (1986)
      In a desperate attempt to prevent a third consecutive Tory victory at the looming General Election, Red Wedge - a…
    • Y2K Bug
      Y2K Bug
      In addition to debating whether 2000 or 2001 would mark the "real" beginning of the new millennium, the Western World…
    • Larry Parnes
      Larry Parnes
      1929 - 1989 Laurence Maurice Parnes was born on 3 September 1929 to a Jewish family in Willesden, London. After…
    • Hands Across America (1986)
      Hands Across America (1986)
      On Sunday 25 May 1986, Americans were asked to simultaneously hold hands across a 4,137-mile route stretching from California's Santa…
    • Brian Epstein
      Brian Epstein
      Brian Epstein was born on 19 September 1934 in Rodney Street, Liverpool - an exclusive area well known for its…
    • Rudi Gernreich
      Rudi Gernreich
      Like his art world contemporary Andy Warhol, Rudi Gernreich was a modern visionary and shrewd press manipulator. He guaranteed himself…
    • Barney Bubbles
      Barney Bubbles
      Barney Bubbles is a cult figure among other designers but is barely known outside the field. Unlike contemporaries and followers…

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleYoko Ono
    Next Article Dynamite 8 Cartridge Player

    Comments are closed.

    Follow us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
    You May Also Like
    • Rock Rainbow, The
      1 9 7 8 (USA) 1 x 60 minute episode Aired on 15 July 1978, this […]
    • Shaggy Dog, The (1959)
      Walt Disney saw his studio’s future in 1959, and the […]
    • Man With a Gun (1958)
      Nightclub owner Harry Drayson (John Le Mesurier) makes a £20,000 […]
    • Magic Fountain, The
      1 9 7 3 (UK) 6 x 15 minute episodes Young Timothy is spending a […]
    • Revenge of Frankenstein, The (1958)
      With his monster killed in a vat of acid, this direct sequel to […]
    • Land Unknown, The (1957)
      Hal Roberts (ex-stuntman Jock Mahoney) is a naval officer sent […]
    Twitter Feed
    Please note


    Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
    Popular Tags
    1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1976 Action Figures Amicus Arcade games Australia Beach movies Beatles Blaxploitation Board games Britpop Canada Crime Disney Doo-Wop Elvis Presley Girl groups Glam Goth Hammer Heavy Metal Irwin Allen Labels Merseybeat Mod revival Motown New Romantic New Wave NWOBHM Oi! One-hit wonders Power Pop Pub rock Punk Radio Scotland Ska Soul music Sport Surf music
    Search Nostalgia Central
    Copyright © 1998, 2022 Nostalgia Central
    • About Nostalgia Central
    • Contact
    • FAQ

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.