The Soundscape of 2025: China's Most Notable Music Albums of the Year

The year 2025 proved to be a vibrant and diverse period for Chinese music, showcasing a rich tapestry of sounds from ethereal dream-pop to dynamic dialect rap and playful post-punk. While the mainstream Mandopop charts continued to be dominated by established figures like Jay Chou, and artists such as Hua Chenyu and Zi Yu captured significant attention, a deeper dive into the industry reveals a thriving ecosystem of independent labels, innovative artists, and devoted curators. This landscape, though often fragmented and algorithm-driven, presented a wealth of high-quality music for discerning listeners, as highlighted by leading tastemakers across the scene.

Navigating China's Fragmented Music Landscape

The challenges of promoting and monetizing music in China's media landscape mirror those seen globally, with industry outlets like First Voice in Music observing these difficulties. While titans like Jay Chou maintain their stronghold on streaming platforms including Apple Music, Spotify, Tencent Music, and NetEase Cloud Music, breaking through the sheer volume of content remains a significant hurdle for many. NetEase recognized 35-year-old former talent show winner Hua Chenyu as its 2025 Artist of the Year, and 23-year-old actor Zi Yu made waves as the sole Chinese artist on the 2025 Billboard Global No. 1s list. However, beyond these pop mainstream successes, artists are often compartmentalized by genre, with even successful acts sometimes packaged for television formats like The Rap of China and The Big Band. The increasing prevalence of online niches, from anime and video game music to viral hits and AI-generated tracks, further complicates any broad assessment of the scene, as noted by The World of Chinese.

Curators and Pathways to Discovery

Despite the concentration of distribution between NetEase and Tencent, which now operate as multifaceted entities encompassing promotion, labels, and curation, a significant body of high-quality music is emerging from independent labels and outlets. For those seeking to explore beyond the mainstream, numerous avenues for discovery exist. Online platforms such as CareForMusic, with its semi-annual Chinese music honors list, and LiveChinaMusic, which recently expanded its decade-long coverage of the live scene with an English-language podcast, offer valuable insights. Concrete Avalanche, founded in 2022, has rapidly become a credible English-language voice for contemporary, non-pop Chinese music. Additionally, the U28 Music Awards gather industry professionals, bloggers, and fans under 28 to curate quarterly lists and annual awards celebrating standout Chinese-language releases. To capture the breadth of this dynamic scene, The World of Chinese narrowed its focus to five key curators, each contributing an album to a collective snapshot of the year's best.

Highlights from the 2025 Album Crop

Among the standout releases of 2025, several albums caught the attention of leading tastemakers, each offering a distinct flavor of the year's musical innovation:

• Zoogazer – 动物园钉子户《aday》: Curated by Music Potato (BenBen), Xiaohongshu’s official music editorial team avatar, this album by the Jiangsu-based quartet Zoogazer offers a delightful blend of shoegaze, dream-pop, and indie rock. Their 2025 release features bright-toned chill pop with electronic subtleties, breezy vocals, and mellow bass grooves, imbued with an air of bossa nova. Tracks like "Firefly" exemplify their romantic and sophisticated "cafe music" style.
• Xia Zhiyu and Dizkar – 夏之禹、地磁卡《人人都爱嘻哈乐》: Selected by NetEase Cloud Music’s Annual Indie Music Awards, this collaborative effort between Xia Zhiyu and Dizkar is a testament to the alchemy of musical partnership. Dizkar, known for his retro-tinged R&B, and Xia, a previous NetEase Cloud Music award winner for Chinese Rap Album of the Year, trade bars in their respective Kunming and Sichuan dialects. The album is characterized by its effortless fluidity, warm, relaxed R&B production with classic feels, and cinematic storytelling.
• Ecke – 吴雪颖《醒不来的梦》: UPEE, a prominent review channel for Chinese music, championed this album by Ecke (Wu Xueying), a veteran of China's shoegaze scene. "The Unwaking Dream" delves into hazy, introspective dream-pop, with washes of sound and a guiding, often sparse, piano. Impressionistic human sounds and hints of rock structures emerge, creating an atmospherically rich experience likened to a "happier David Lynch."
• Qi Zitan – 祁紫檀《世界与孤独女王》: StreetVoice, a significant music-sharing platform, highlighted Qi Zitan’s "Lonely Queen and the World." Qi Zitan, who began her career in TV singing contests and formed the band Steal Joy, has steadily built a solo career around lush, intimate pop. Her 2025 album weaves an ethereal fairy tale, with intimate singing, ornate yet crisp backing, and a blend of English and Mandarin lyrics, creating a "waltz around a ballroom of stars."

Naja Naja's Quirky Post-Punk Prowess

Adding its own unique voice to the year's top albums, The World of Chinese spotlighted Naja Naja's "Sheep Out of the Box." This Beijing duo, formed in 2020 by Gougou (bass/vocals) and Yuhao (guitar/vocals), approaches music with a sense of play, creating a "circus of dark wonder, youthful disco and unexpected hooks." Their 2025 full-length debut masterfully blends art-school post-punk with saturated synths and hypnotic basslines. Despite song titles like "3000 Ways to Die," the album exudes an unexpected glee, painting vivid lyrical scenes like "laser scanning/silent disco, raving/flashing/intimate strangers." The dual vocals contribute to a wide range of tones, guiding listeners through a journey that is both whimsical and occasionally sinister, demonstrating a truly original artistic vision.