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980’s popular culture reflected the conservative politics of the era also known as the “baby boomer” and “yuppie” era, the period’s culture
was shaped by the college educated yuppies who had expensive tastes and cared more about what they earn materialistically more than ever the previous generations. However successful this generation, they had deep self-assurance and self-doubt problems. The superficial pleasures didn’t serve for their spirituality. The Hollywood movies consolidated this superficiality such as “Beverly Hills Cop”, “Raider of the Lost Ark” block busting and earning millions of dollars at the box office. The popular culture on TV also boomed during the era, at home people watched sitcoms and movies and artists like Michael Jackson were turned into megastars indicating the populist consumerist culture was born. MTV marked the era with its launch in 1981, introducing bands such as Duran Duran and Culture Club. It also began the forum for the young artists as a platform to shape the popular culture of America, reflecting the insurgence and also discontent of the yuppie generation towards the conservative society. The late of 70’s and 80’s also saw the rise of Rock’n’Roll culture and glam rock as well, the groups such as Kiss and Queen, reflected the subculture of the era defying the norms and costumes of the mainstream culture, revealing that the minority as called were refusing the general accepted norms and experimented in different life styles. With the fall of The Berlin Wall in 1989 and the Soviet Union in 1991, marking the end of Cold War era, the red scare and relentless race for the nuclear weapons ended. The affluent society of USA started to seek for new ways of self-expression and tried to adapt to the changing context of the world. The 90’s marked itself as the “Me Era” as the journalist Tom Wolfe coined the term. The individualism and self-expression gained importance for the society.
