Toby Cresswell, author of "1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets", said that the song is a "sweet, limited white tune on the top, and there's Madonna – all the right-shop chic – dragging the straight world into this subterranean paradise. All the magic of the eighties is right here." Matthew Rettenmund, author of "Totally Awesome 80s: A Lexicon of the Music, Videos, Movies, TV Shows, Stars, and Trends of that Decadent Decade", declared "Into the Groove" as the ultimate 1980s song and felt that it "cemented Madonna's place as the dancing queen of the era". Dawn Keetley and John Pettigrew, authors of "Public Women, Public Words: A Documentary History of American Feminism", called it a "mesmerizing theme song".