Fashion (song)

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"Fashion"

Single by David Bowie
from the album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
B-side(s)	Scream Like a Baby
Released	October 1980
Format	7" single
Recorded	Power Station, New York, February; Good Earth Studios, London, April 1980
Genre	Rock
Length	3:23
Label	RCA BOW 7
Producer(s)	David Bowie, Tony Visconti
Chart positions
#5 (UK) #70 (USA)
David Bowie singles chronology
"Ashes to Ashes" 1980	"Fashion” 1980	"Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" 1981

"Fashion" is a track from David Bowie's Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). It was also released as the second single from that album in 1980.

It is notable for its emotionally vacant choir effect, and the recurring onomatopoeia "beep beep." Along with references to a "goon squad" coming to town, these have provoked theories that the song actually concerns fascism. The song may also be describing the process of how members of a subculture are at first outcasts, and then it becomes fashionable.

Guest guitarist Robert Fripp contributes a series of harsh, mechanical riffs that strangely complement the band's funk/reggae arrangement.

David Mallet shot a promotional clip for the film in Manhattan, utilising one of the sets from Christiane F., featuring Bowie performing while a group of emotionless fans robotically re-enact his every move. The cynical sentiment of the song fits in with the album’s running theme of disillusionment – “Teenage Wildlife” would also show Bowie’s displeasure with his imitators, while the preceding single “Ashes to Ashes” had seen the re-evaluation of Major Tom from his first hit, "Space Oddity".

The edited single version of “Fashion” reached #5 in the UK, and by hitting #70 in America gave Bowie his first chart single there for four years.

The song has since recurred on several Bowie tours.

The UK single sleeve design was adapted for the cover art on the 1980 compilation Best of Bowie.

The song was sampled in "I Am A Scientist" by the Dandy Warhols on their album, Welcome to the Monkey House.