D.E.S.L.O.P: A Practical Checklist for Music × Gaming Partnerships
Your first line of defence against cultural whiplash.
Within this Substack my case studies have tried to showcase one thing: music and games perform better when they’re designed to work together.
However, audience pushback has changed; instead of showing up as low engagement, players are now openly rejecting these moments. Here is a link to an article about Assassins Creed’s collaboration with Attack on Titan being ‘slated’ by fans and being referred to as ‘peak slop in its purest form’.
Honestly that statement properly cracked me up. I’ve got no stance on the game itself, but the sheer volume of appearances of the word ‘Slop’ in my feeds and interactions are exponential, and it has sparked my interest in understanding it.
How can we avoid any music x gaming moments being referred to as “slop” in any shape or form?
A. What is Slop?
B. A helpful checklist - D.E.S.L.O.P
C. Current thoughts
A. What is Slop
According to Merriam-Webster, the current slang definition of ‘slop’ is:
slop
noun
’unwanted and unasked for AI-generated content’
…I’m not sure how much I agree with this, nor that a poor-performing partnership automatically means its AI. If I was to define slop in a more unforgivable way, it would be anything “Out Of Place”.
Slop seems to be used as a blanket term for many undesirable things. So how do we ensure that a placement or a crossover avoids the slop label?
B. A Helpful Checklist - D.E.S.L.O.P
You know me - I’ve been known to make a list or two. Love me a good taxonomy. So, just for you, I’ve created a ticklist of qualifiers that I think at a very basic level could help indicate if a partnership is robust. I’ve named this the ‘Diagnostic Engine for Sync Licensing and Original Partnerships’ or D.E.S.L.O.P for short.
There are exceptions, specifics and executables that all shift and change, but ultimately I’d ask myself the below questions to help stress-test an idea.
1. Artist Alignment
Right out of the gate, a great question to ask is - ‘Does the artist actually like the game?’. If the partnership requires the actual presence of an artist, or even a deeper nuanced presence of an artists aesthetic in the game, it’s important to have this ticked. This ensures you match tone, energy and ensure the final input is genuine and experience-enriching. The benefits in audience cross-pollination between the artist and the game is powerful too.
A great example of this is Post Malone × Hunt: Showdown as it’s so clear that Posty loves this game.
2. Creative Contribution
Does this idea add something to the overall experience? A partnership should aim to bring something the game can’t generate internally. That might be a distinct sonic identity, a thematic shift, a cameo with intent, or even the aesthetic that enriches the atmosphere.
A great example is Refused, who are a real life band who’s music featured heavily in the marketing for Cyberpunk 2077, but they also feature in-game as the band Samurai - the supporting band to one of the main protagonists.
3. ‘First’ or ‘Best’
I’ve written about being first or best before, so to summarise old ground: Is this innovative or excellent? A middle-of-the-road idea rarely survives long in the public consciousness. A partnership either pushes into new territory or nails the familiar with enough scale and craft to stand out. An example is an old one - Marshmello was the first mainstream concert in Fortnite, but Travis Scott is also known as a technical and cultural milestone. Both of them are pioneers in each direction.
4. Mutual Audience Logic
Does it make sense? This is a broader question because I’m referring to both the audience demographic as well as their creative worlds - which to me are shared interests anyway. The collaboration should feel intuitively ‘right’ to the players, because the artist and the game are already operating within an overlapping space. This should aim to feel like an extension rather than a ‘cross over’ where they shake hands and continue generating momentum for their respective campaigns.
Percival Schuttenbach’s folk-metal sound overlaps perfectly with The Witcher’s audience and cultural roots, making their tavern songs feel native to the world. If anyone wanted to re-listen to the aesthetic soundscape of The Witcher, they can easily go back to Percival.
For the record, vastly opposite campaigns can totally work - look at Metallica on Just Dance. You can go so far outside the expected lane that the sheer boldness becomes the point (see 3. ‘First Or Best’ - Innovation focus)
5. Long-Term
Will this integration exist beyond its launch? Ideally, it becomes part of the game’s ongoing narrative, or it gives players something to build around, remix, share, revisit, or reference over time. This is largely decided by the impact it had on the narrative, an innovative gameplay feature, or community adoption.
Monstercat’s partnership with Rocket League is one of my fave examples. As an avid listener to the Monstercat Podcast (now ‘Call Of The Wild’) I had such an instant connection with Rocket League’s sonic identity. When they collaborated it felt so right that it furthered my connection with both that label and the game. This has been a long, collaborative partnership that has helped forge each others identity over time.
6. Memorability
And finally, possibly the biggest one - Will the player remember this moment? This is a big one for me because I’ve written about a few absolute gems in my time. Halo 2 x Breaking Benjamin, Red Dead Redemption 2 x D’Angelo… there’s SO many case studies of excellent work. A worthy collaboration produces a moment that becomes part of the player’s personal history with the game, and therefore nostalgia, which is great for long term fans of artists and games alike.
I would tell you all about the completely forgettable music and gaming cross overs but…well…I can’t remember them.
C. Further Notes
In my opinion, something becomes out of place when an AI can’t hold enough context to make a cohesive choice amongst its cacophony of assumptions, or when a crossover feels engineered for time-saving, cost-saving, favouritism, or financial gain rather than a genuine and considered fit.
Fortnite have engineered something genuinely unique and impressive, but I do think it unintentionally shapes how people interpret “Slop”. Every major IP Fortnite brings in slots into a wider story arc they control, and the whole structure of the game is built around constant crossovers. In Fortnite, anything goes, its interactive, long term and it makes sense.
But that logic doesn’t apply for every game.
As a random example, If I’m playing the next Dead Space and the next jump scare turns out to be a Care Bear, I can’t tell whether I’m more irritated about being yanked out of the atmosphere and narrative, or about how much it must have cost to drop an advert into a survival-horror corridor. Also, leave me alone - I’m trying not to die in space. I don’t need a rainbow slide rescue today.
TLDR
Music and games are made primarily out of passion. When it works, the impact of music and games together reaches further than either would alone. However, slop is in the eye of the beholder. Use the D.E.S.L.O.P checklist to assess your idea before you commit.
