Gotta Catch 'Em All!

Someone alluded to the pokérap in an earlier blog, which sent me on a search of youtube and got me thinking. The pokérap represents an insidious use of music in television that borders upon subliminal messaging.

The pokérap played at the end of every episode of the Pokemon cartoon, it’s unrelated to the plot of the show and is simply a very rapid run through of all the pokémon available in the game. It would take five days (or Monday to Friday) to cover all 150 original Pokemon.

Essentially the ‘rapper’ would call at the name of a pokémon and that pokémon’s image would flash on screen with its name in big bold letters below it. Thirty or so pokémon would fly past in about 40 seconds interspersed with the words “Gotta catch ‘em all!” which were likewise flashed onscreen in a bold font.

The catchy tune and innocent nature of the rap hides the fact that it’s encouraging young children to memorize all 150 characters; furthermore, it encourages them to need them, to want them, to ‘catch them’. On one level this encourages a child to play the game more (and catch all the pokémon) but when the pokémon began to be sold as toys it encouraged children to want all of those as well. Essentially, it ensured that rather than just knowing (and wanting) a handful of the total pokémon, children would instead know and want each and every one.

Thus the use of music in this setting is not to aid the plot or set the atmosphere (as in many television shows) but rather to provide a way to educate children about what was essentially a product.