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Pep Talk Song

"You can do anything that you set your mind to
No matter if it seems so hard
Friends are near, here to go through it, too
You won't have to look too far."
— The LPS Pets to Blythe Baxter, Littlest Pet Shop (2012)

A song that contains encouragement, advice, and maybe a little tough love, generally meant to lift the listener's spirits or to help them when they don't know what to do.

Related to You Are Not Alone and The Future Will Be Better.

Examples:

Film
  • "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python's Life of Brian is a darkly humorous twist on this, given that it's sung at the finale of the film by dying, crucified prisoners.
  • Stan Bush's unapologetically idealistic and inspirational "The Touch" from Transformers: The Movie, which serves as the theme song for the noble and heroic Optimus Prime. Relatedly, there's "Dare," which seems to serve the same role for the young and impetuous Hot Rod.
  • "Never Say Never" from An American Tail
    • "The Girl You Left Behind" from Fievel Goes West warns the listener that leaving their lovers behind will "cause their heart to wander".
    • "Get the Facts" and "Who Will" from the 4th movie, Mystery of the Night Monster.
  • "It's Easy Mmm'kay" from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
  • "Dig a Little Deeper" from The Princess and the Frog.
  • "Marry the Mole" from Thumbelina is a strange twist on this. While Miss Field Mouse thinks she's giving Thumbelina good advice and encouragement, she's also telling her to marry someone for their money and that love is over-rated.
    • "Follow Your Heart" from the same film is a more straight-forward example.
  • "Big And Loud" from Cats Don't Dance is one. But not the Dark Reprise.
  • "The Worry Song" from Anchors Aweigh, sung by Gene Kelly and Jerry.
  • "Learn to Do It" from Anastasia: "If I can learn to do it, you can learn to do it."
  • "The Bare Necessities" from Disney's The Jungle Book.
  • "One Last Hope" in Hercules has aspects of this as well as Training Montage, with lines like "It takes more than sinew, comes down to what's in you!"
  • "A Guy Like You" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, featuring the gargoyles trying to convince Quasi that his... unique appearance makes him irresistible.
  • "Friends to the End" from Tom and Jerry: The Movie.
  • "Try The Impossible" from The Christmas Toy.
  • Shakira's "Try Everything", the lead single from Zootopia's soundtrack.

Live-Action TV
  • In New Girl, one of Jess's quirks is her tendency to give herself songs meant to boost her own confidence.
    Jess: "She's goin' out to find a rebound... Who's that girl? It's Jess!"
    Nick: "Wait, did you make up a theme song for yourself?"
  • Series made for toddlers such as Sesame Street and Yo Gabba Gabba usually have one of these at least Once per Episode if not more.
  • From Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, "Face Your Fears" is a complete parody of this. It starts out normal and then just goes off the rails:
    If a bear runs at you in the woods,
    Don’t run away.
    Look it deep in the eyes,
    Put your hand on its chest, and say
    “Bear, I’m not afraid!”
    • The Pep Talk Song Parody is a speciality of this show. "Women Gotta Stick Together" is full of general statements about how women need to be there for each other, as well as nasty insults to every woman the singer runs into during the song. "Put Yourself First" is about putting yourself first, so that guys will find you sexy, which will make you feel empowered:
      Put yourself first, girl,
      Worry about yourself.
      Make yourself sexy
      Just for yourself
      So when dudes see you put yourself first,
      They’ll be like, "Damn, you’re hot, wanna make out?"

Music

Theatre
  • "You're the Top" from Anything Goes is Reno encouraging Billy to go after Hope (despite the fact that she'd rather have him herself).
  • "Heart" from Damn Yankees.
  • "On The Right Track" from Pippin, which the Leading Player steps in to sing when Pippin is starting to sense that he can't win at anything he tries. The finale (well, the first part) also counts as this, in a cruelly twisted way, with the Players encouraging Pippin to find total fulfillment in Self-Immolation.
  • Another twisted example: "Everybody's Got The Right" from Stephen Sondheim's Assassins.
  • "Ya Got Me" from On the Town, sung by Claire, Hily, Chip and Ozzie to cheer Gabey up.
  • The last big production number of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, "A Little Me", is this directed at Charlie Bucket, who doesn't think he has what it takes to be Willy Wonka's successor, since he has no experience in being a chocolatier (much less a business owner). It's Wonka himself who explains that the boy's inexperience means he can not only learn but become a unique, open-minded talent in the process. He goes on to explain that Charlie is better than he thinks he is, being a bright, kind, unspoiled, creative child — an opinion backed up by the Oompa-Loompas and Charlie's own family, who join in on the song.
  • In Seussical, as the Whos are falling, the action pauses for the Cat to reassure the audience with "How Lucky You Are." This is not to say it reassures the Whos at all, especially when the Cat sneezes on them in the middle of the song.
  • "Somewhere" - West Side Story.
  • "If I Didn't Believe in You" from The Last Five Years.
  • "No One Is Alone" from Into the Woods
  • The Little Mermaid has Scuttle and his seagull friends sing "Positoovity" as Ariel struggles to stand and walk on her newly acquired human legs.

Video Games

Western Animation
  • Pinkie Pie's "Giggle At the Ghostly" song from the second episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
    • She also tries to sing to Fluttershy to encourage her to make a jump in "Dragonshy" ("You can make it if you try/with a hop, skip, and jump!")
    • "You Gotta Share", also by Pinkie Pie, from "Over a Barrel".
      • Although, it's subverted when it ends up making things worse.
    • "You'll Play Your Part" in part 1 of the season 4 finale, sung by Celestia, Luna and Cadance, encouraging Twilight after she laments that she doesn't seem to have a real purpose as a princess.
  • The first My Little Pony TV special, "Rescue at Midnight Castle," has "Dancing on Air," in which Firefly insists (over Megan's protests) that the other little ponies will be overjoyed that Megan is coming to help them against Tirac.
  • In the Wartime Cartoon "Scrap Happy Daffy", the ghosts of Daffy Duck's ancestors sing him a song of patriotic encouragement after he gets beaten up by a Nazi goat.
  • "Wonderful Ways to Say No" from the anti-drug PSA Cartoon Allstars To The Rescue.
  • Dr. Rabbit sings about how to properly brush one's teeth in Doctor Rabbit's World Tour.
  • In Littlest Pet Shop (2012)'s season 2 finale, after Blythe and the pets get to the International Pet Fashion Expo, the pets break out into song, encouraging Blythe to take chances, have fun, and remember that they are always there for her. See page quote.
  • "There's Always Tomorrow" from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964).
  • A few of the songs from the ChalkZone music video segments, such as "Comin' To Life", "Golden Thumb", and "There You Are".

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