The remake of Footloose has started to pique my interest. Got word today that the musical artist of the past decade, Jack White and his stripes, is headlining in some of the music in the OST. As well as rap recording artist, David Banner. Just throwing in a White Stripes song isn’t really what excites me – although that helps. What excites me is the fact that it’s Craig Brewer directing the film and if there’s anything he seems to pull heart out of for his movies, it’s his musical selections.

Now me personally, I can’t stand rap. I’ve tried to listen to so many varieties, artists and sub genres and I can never seem to grasp what the flavor is (except for The Beastie Boys). That changed in 2005 with Brewer’s Hustle and Flow and took the heart and soul of rap and exposed it nobody less than the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, who bestowed upon it an Oscar for best song in a motion picture. Next up for Brewer was one my favorite soundtracks of 2007 in the fabulously gritty Black Snake Moan. The sweaty blues and healthy doses of soul pulled you into that world so effortlessly it gives me goosebumps.

Footloose was the first soundtrack I ever purchased and if memory serves, it was only the second cassette tape I ever bought for myself with my own money (after MJ’s “Thriller” of course). Footloose just about lives and dies by it’s soundtrack and its “angry dance” sequence. It was an HBO/Showtime favorite for pretty much everyone back in the 80′s. Hearing that it would be remade gave me kind of a “meh” attitude. But now with all this great music being poured into it, and with Craig Brewer really knowing how to get soul from his movie through the music and his interesting eye for everything Southern States culture, I’m really looking forward to this film and also to see what other musical tricks may be coming down the pipe. Can you see Kevin Bacon finishing off the film dancing to The White Stripes’ “Catch Hell Blues?” Me either. But it won’t be Kevin Bacon Dancing and this won’t be your papa’s Footloose. This will be Craig Brewer’s Footloose and sweat will fly.