Is Footloose Set in the 1980s? An Emphatic Yes – And Here‘s Why
Without a doubt, the seminal 1984 musical drama Footloose is set and entrenched in the 1980s. From the fashion to the music to the conservative morality it rebels against, Footloose distinctly captures the era‘s cultural landscape.
Footloose Directly Reflects Real Teen Issues in 1980s America
The film immediately establishes its ‘80s credentials literally from the opening scene. Set in the fictional small town of Bomont, we meet protagonist Ren McCormack (Kevin Bacon) as he relocates from big city Chicago clad in ‘80s punk/new wave attire of ripped jeans and a Raiders Starter jacket.
Within minutes, Ren clashes with local leadership over laws banning rock music and public dancing enacted after a deadly accident involving drunk teenage revelers. Here the film taps into true events – in Elmore City, Oklahoma, a small rural town had banned dancing since the late 1800s until a movement grew allowing a prom in 1980. Footloose fictionalizes similar tensions between tradition and changing youth attitudes occurring nationwide at the dawn of the Reagan era.
Bomont‘s Book Burning Bonfire Evokes Controversies of the Period
In an early scene, we see the local minister Reverend Shaw Moore (John Lithgow) overseeing a public book burning meant to destroy corrupting influences on the town‘s youth. While shocking today, record and book burnings controversially occurred in some conservative religious communities during the late 20th century.
Groups like the Parents Music Resource Center lobbied against perceived vulgarity in emerging popular music. These pressures culminated in the adoption of Parental Advisory warnings for explicit content in 1985, directly impacting artists featured on the very Footloose soundtrack!
The Footloose Soundtrack Epitomizes Peak ‘80s Musical Styles
More than anything the film‘s chart-topping soundtrack roots Footloose firmly in the 1980s. Uptempo pop tracks from artists like Kenny Loggins, Deniece Williams, Bonnie Tyler and Mike Reno of Loverboy dominate. The kinetic title track "Footloose" went to #1 on the Billboard charts in 1984, energizing audiences to Ren‘s crusade to reconnect the youth of Bomont through dance and music against the older generations.
Synthesizers, electronica, and heavy use of drum machines define the sound, contrasting the earlier acoustic guitar rock of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Soaring power ballads reveal Soft rock influences melting with remnants of disco era before giving way entirely to hip hop and hard rock later in the decade. Much like the timeframe it reflects, Footloose‘s music fuses together disparate elements leading into the future MTV generation.
The Infamous Warehouse Dance Scene Highlights Signature ‘80s Choreography
No scene cements Footloose‘s place in history more than Ren‘s warehouse dance sequence. Here Kevin Bacon busts out with an aerobic hybrid of breakdancing and gymnastics against a pumping soundtrack, clad head to toe in ‘80s athletic gear.
The energetic choreography marked a turning point for dude dancing in American cinema – blending street styles like popping and locking that had broken through in the early 1980s. Set pieces like this spread dance music and new wave styles into suburban homes across the country via cable TV connections newly laid in the Reagan years, revolutionizing youth culture for the decade.
Bacon himself has remarked "…so much of the country saw people dancing for the first time like that…It really changed the way America viewed dancing."
Religious Clashes Around Social Issues Echoed Those Occurring During the 1980s
While no pastors actually banned dancing outright, Footloose uses this exaggerated premise to stage sincere explorations around clashing religious worldviews unfolding across the American (REAGAN DEREGULATION/MORAL MAJORITY REFERENCES). Bomont stands as mythic battleground between youthful freedom and draconian discipline that played out through real policy debates between conservatives and progressives throughout the decade.
Ultimately the plastic world of Bomont serves as microcosm for cultural tensions stemming from the jarring changes the ‘80s brought to small town ways of life across entire sections America. By externalizing that conflict literally via policies restricting forms of artistic expression, the movie channels a much larger spirit of rebellion against tradition into its high school dance fundraiser storyline.
Through its fashion, music, themes and sensibilities around conflict between youthful freedom and adult control, Footloose channels the American 1980s right down to its very bone structure. It remains etched into pop culture history precisely because nearly four decades later we recognize still so much of that volatile, uncertain decade packed vividly into its celluloid image.
So when we ask "What decade is Footloose set in?" – like a hunk of pure crystallized amber, the answer shines through with atomic 80s intensity:
The 1980s! Dawning of Reagan‘s "Morning in America", breakpoint of the Cold War stalemate, horizon line of the millennium now visible where sweeping social and technological shifts loomed that would one day flatten the remaining boundaries between pre-globalization and the interwoven world now at our fingertips.
Footloose throws one last youthful dance party at the brink of that event line. Against the staid stagnancy of Bomont, those strains of Kenny Loggin‘s eponymous smash hit blast open a rupture in time where glimpses of our unfolding future first spilled through in all their uncertain, dangerous and delightfully liberating possibility!
