"Dedicated Follower of Fashion" is a 1966 single by the British band The Kinks. It lampoons the contemporary British fashion scene and mod culture in general. Originally released as a single, it has been included on many of the band's later albums.
Musically, it and "A Well Respected Man" marked the beginning of an expansion in the Kinks' inspirations, drawing as much from British music hall traditions as from American rhythm and blues, the inspiration for breakthrough Kinks songs like "You Really Got Me".
The British record-buying public enjoyed the jab at "the whole Carnabetian army" enough to put the song into the top five. It reached the top of the charts in The Netherlands and New Zealand and was a big hit around the world. In the U.S., it peaked at #36 and stayed on the charts for several weeks. The lyrics won writer Ray Davies an Ivor Novello Award for songwriting in 1966. Outside of fashion, the song's title has remained a metaphor for slavish conformity, but in a more positive sense as an analogy for the growth of online social networks.
What's funny to me is that writers still borrow lyrics from the song, it's still talked about, and yet we never hear it played on the radio... truly a forgotten oldie!
