Tom Petty - Yer So Bad

What this video is

Produced in 1989 at the tail end of the Reagan decade, 'Yer So Bad' deploys wry, observational comedy to skewer the era's defining social archetype: the yuppie. Tom Petty, operating as an everyman narrator, positions himself explicitly against the materialistic excesses the song dramatizes. The music video, directed by Julien Temple during his American exile period following Absolute Beginners, translates the…

Why it matters

A canonical example of late-1980s Heartland Rock's self-aware humor, 'Yer So Bad' and its video demonstrate how Tom Petty used the Full Moon Fever album cycle to balance commercial accessibility with satirical lyrical content. Rolling Stone named it one of Petty's 50 best songs, citing it as…

The director

Julien Temple (born November 26, 1953, London, England) is a British film, documentary, and music video director. He launched his career documenting the Sex Pistols and became a pioneering MTV-era director of videos for the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and…