Musical tastes have always been deeply personal. We shudder to share our most private playlists. Finding fresh music is its own wilderness. And in China’s fragmented, algorithm-driven media landscape, much like elsewhere, it’s difficult to promote, reach an audience, and turn a profit, as industry outlet First Voice in Music recently observed. Long-established artists like Jay Chou continued to dominate Mandopop charts across streaming platforms, from Apple Music and Spotify to Tencent Music and NetEase Cloud Music. Few artists can break through the noise: NetEase named 35-year-old former talent show winner Hua Chenyu its 2025 Artist of the Year, while 23-year-old actor Zi Yu became the only Chinese artist to make the 2025 Billboard Global No. 1s list.

Beyond the pop mainstream, artists are often pigeonholed by genre—rock, indie, rap, metal, folk, electronic, and more—and, if fortunate, packaged for television formats such as The Rap of China and The Big Band. Factor in online niches—from anime and video game music to viral hits and classical releases, and in 2025, increasingly AI-generated tracks—it becomes difficult to draw meaningful conclusions about the broader scene.

Distribution is largely concentrated between NetEase and Tencent, both of which now function as promoters, labels, and curators rolled into one. Yet beneath the surface lies a wealth of independent labels and outlets releasing and covering high-quality music. Given these dynamics and the medium’s breadth and selectivity, this year, TWOC set out to survey a cross-section of trusted musical curators across China.

For curious ears, there are plenty of avenues for discovery. Online channels like CareForMusic, whose panel of judges has released a Chinese music honors list twice a year for six years running. LiveChinaMusic has covered the live scene for more than a decade and recently expanded into an English-language podcast. Concrete Avalanche, founded in 2022, has quickly become one of the most credible English-language voices on contemporary, largely non-pop Chinese music. Then there are the U28 Music Awards, which bring together music industry professionals, bloggers, and fans under 28 to publish quarterly must-listen lists and annual awards celebrating standout Chinese-language releases.

To keep the focus tight, TWOC narrowed the field to five key voices, highlighting one album from each of their 2025 best-of lists, along with our own pick, to offer context and a snapshot of the breadth of Chinese music today. In no particular order:

aday by Zoogazer
动物园钉子户《aday》

Curator: Music Potato. Also referred to as BenBen, it’s the avatar for Xiaohongshu’s (RedNote) official music editorial team. A fictional mascot, “scene influencer,” and “club manager,” BenBen nevertheless boosts upwards of 406,000 followers.

The band is a four-piece self-described blend of “shoegaze, dream-pop, and indie rock” out of Jiangsu province, consisting of Bao (vocals/guitar), Wan Xi (bass), Xiao Peng (synth/guitar), and Xiao Yang (drums). Founded in 2017, their 2020 EP, Hiding in Your Room, was one of NetEase Cloud Music Award’s top 10 original albums of the year. Their Chinese name—literally “Nail House at the Zoo”—combines a term for residents who refuse to leave homes slated for demolition with a nod to the band’s love of zoo animals (one member is a devoted visitor), reflecting strong personalities and a DIY spirit.

In this 2025 album, Zoogazer serves up bright-toned chill pop with some tasteful electronic flourishes. The vocals are breezy, the bass grooves are mellow. There’s an air of bossa nova. The slow bloom of “Firefly” is especially effective, with its romantic pledges and imagery of getting lost on a night bus. This is music for lounging—cafe music, not in a pejorative sense, but as a marker of worldly sophistication.

Everybody Loves Hiphop by Xia Zhiyu and Dizkar
夏之禹、地磁卡《人人都爱嘻哈乐》

Curator: NetEase Cloud Music’s Annual Indie Music Awards. Part of the Tencent/NetEase duopoly in China’s music streaming market, Netease is involved across the entire music industry ecosystem, including awards and artist development. As part of their annual awards, they offer a special editors’ prize to highlight albums of high artistic merit and hidden gems.

Dizkar built solid credentials as an underground rapper in his teens but rose to fame with smooth, retro-tinged R&B. He was tapped by Xia Zhiyu to produce his next album, but as they connected, the project evolved into a fully collaborative effort. Dizkar raps in his Kunming dialect, trading bars with Xia, who flows in Sichuan. Xia, already the winner of NetEase Cloud Music 2023’s Chinese Rap Album of the Year, had previously avoided his home dialect. Together, they now embrace local identities and the travails of everyday life.

When musical marriages work, there’s alchemy. None more so than in hip-hop, where MCs trade rhymes. Here we have the easy fluidity of two interwoven dialects trading old stories. Dizkar’s singing voice keeps things melodic. The same goes for the production, which is never crowded but warm and relaxed. The R&B stylings have a classic feel, simple beats against woozy horns, and drunken honky keys on “Street Smarts.” Elsewhere, it gets cinematic, as in “Long Journey.” Life is a mountain road—hard but easier with friends.

The Unwaking Dream by Ecke
吴雪颖《醒不来的梦》

Curator: UPEE. A review channel for Chinese music, in the style of Pitchfork, UPEE also does reporting and interviews with artists, and has a presence across many platforms. In a landscape with few outlets dedicated to quality Chinese music criticism, UPEE stands out.

Ecke, German for “corner,” is the solo alias of Wu Xueying, a veteran of China’s shoegaze scene who released a debut album in 2009. Wu alternates releases between Ecke and her band Forsaken Autumn, founded in 2011. Over the years, it has seen a stylistic evolution from understated singer-songwriter folk to dreamy introspection.

For this album, we’re in dream territory. Washes of sound tune in and out like a happier David Lynch. On some tracks, a sparse but anchoring piano hovers above the mix; on others, it lies beneath—always serving as our guide. Impressionistic recordings of human life ripple through the background, never fully legible. More structured pieces emerge, with sharper edges hinting at the form of a rock song—but always at a distance. Through it all, the atmosphere remains hazy.

Lonely Queen and the World by Qi Zitan
祁紫檀《世界与孤独女王》

Curator: StreetVoice. A 20-year-old music-sharing platform, StreetVoice is often seen as a Chinese equivalent of SoundCloud. It operates on a freemium model and has become a popular avenue for independent artists to upload their music. There is a strong curatorial focus and an ecosystem that nurtures talent at different stages of their careers.

In the early 2010s, Shandong-born Hangzhou-based Qi Zitan participated in several TV singing contests. By the time she got to college, she had formed a band, Steal Joy, blending indie, rock, and folk. But her solo career didn’t begin in earnest until her 2017 debut album, The Balance of New Age. From there, she has steadily released five albums, winning over fans with her consistency and immersive world of lush, intimate pop.

Our lonely queen conjures an ethereal fairy tale in this latest album. The singing is intimate, the backing ornate yet crisp, like ice skating across crystals. The opening track, “Ice and Snow World,” sets the mood. Then the guitars come in. English lyrics are interspersed with Mandarin as we glide through ballads, move to the dance floor, and soar, as in “I Believe in Love,” with its tender warble. It’s a waltz around a ballroom of stars.

Sheep Out of the Box by Naja Naja

Curator: The World of Chinese. For two decades, TWOC has uncovered the stories shaping and often overlooked in China’s cultural scene. Subscribe to support our work!

Naja Naja is a Beijing duo formed in 2020 by Gougou (bass/vocals) and Yuhao (guitar/vocals). They treat music as play—a circus of dark wonder, youthful disco and unexpected hooks—melding art-school post-punk with saturated synths and hypnotic bass lines. After releasing an EP in 2021, they delivered their first full-length album in 2025.

What to say about this quirky slice of art-rock perfection? There shouldn’t be so much glee listening to a song called “3000 Ways to Die,” yet Naja Naja’s strange world can only provoke delight. The lyrics paint vivid scenes: “laser scanning/silent disco, raving/flashing/intimate strangers.” The dual vocals allow for a wide range of tones. It’s a ride. One moment we’re at a “Taiji park with romance,” next minute things get sinister, and it’s a “sleepless doggie, round and round.” Completely original.