Decoding 2025: 8 thinkers on the music trends that defined the year
The revenge of the fatally online outcasts. DIY DJing. The rising tide of sloponomics. Power to the people. Artists defying Big Tech. A new wave of British rap. We asked some of our favourite writers, contributors and scene-setters to pick apart the bones of music and culture in 2025.
Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork columnist: Blowing up without hollowing out
“A slew of longtime underground figures have soared without trashing their OG style. Jane Remover went back to their hyperrap roots; Xaviersobased signed to Atlantic and is still disgorging off-kilter freakiness; Underscores crested a million monthly listeners while making what’s basically complextro-pop; OsamaSon pushed his sound to borderline industrial noise; and Ninajirachi won ARIAs for an album with a song whose hook goes, ‘I wanna fuck my computer.’ It feels like the promise of the pandemic digicore scene – that all these weird, fatally online outcasts could rise collectively without selling out – is finally coming alive.”
Chal Ravens and Tom Lea, hosts of the No Tags podcast: DJing finally became too naff to bear
“Thought Andrew Lloyd Webber’s set was embarrassing? Nowhere near the worst of it. But the tide is finally turning: your mates are leaving Berlin. Your boyfriend sold his turntables to download shoegaze plugins. Bands are back by default. Unfortunately, the overheads are ridiculous – being in a band is now a money-sucking enterprise from top to bottom. But we’re here, and we’re on the Dice waiting list for Geese tickets.”
No Tags: Conversations on Underground Music Culture Vol. 2 is out now
Günseli Yalcinkaya, internet folklorist: A wave of slop
“2025 saw all kinds of AI monsters crawling out the shadows, but the most infectious by far has been slop. One of the year’s most-searched terms, sloponomics, has infiltrated all areas of online existence: Instagram slop, Netflix slop, LinkedIn slop, intellectual slop. It’s even spilled out IRL, with viral moments such as Labubu Matcha Dubai Chocolate. Slop discourse propelled a rush of slop thinkpieces and trend reports, as slop generated more slop. Late capitalism’s endgame, yes, but more sinister is the way slop is making us doubt reality itself, as AI-thoritarians wield fiction to influence mass narratives. All the while, the information overwhelm is eroding our ability to think for ourselves. You don’t need a tin hat to see where this is heading.”
Holly Dicker, author, journalist and raver: Hard music for harder times
“2025 has been a bitch. And the soundtrack has been hardcore: hard music for harder times. But what is hardcore? Simply, it cannot be expressed with words. Hardcore is not music, as I discovered over the excruciating years of failing and falling apart while writing Dance or Die, exiled from society. Hardcore is people suffering through the unrelenting crises of modern life – together – embalmed in harsh, loud, uncompromising beats beneath the blinding flash of a strobe. So let’s keep dancing into 2026, or die. Hardcore.”
Dance or Die: A History of Hardcore is out now on Velocity Press
Derrick Gee, professional music fan: A DJ is whoever plays music and there’s evidence
“A disc jockey used to be a profession relegated to broadcasters or club conductors. In 2025? The backdrop can be your bedroom, a Vietnamese coffee house, an elevator, a café or your own DIY Boiler Room filmed with friends and a GoPro. I’m talking about how, this year, being a DJ is now closer to being a performer and entertainer than a tried-and-tested club spinner grinding it out at 2am. DJ sets are now not just for clubbers, but also for lean-back, headphones-on office workers looking for a vibe.”
Liam Inscoe-Jones, author and journalist: Slowing down in the age of speeding up
“The time of abundance is now. Culture arrives thicker and faster, and the tech bros are coming to further clog the pipes. But Silicon Valley doesn’t have a monopoly on free thinkers. This year, myriad artists used modes old and new to create slow, patient music that focused the mind and proved capable of slowing the tide – from Annahstasia‘s rich, embodied folk songs to Caroline’s Appalachian harmonies and Rafael Toral’s vast, soaring Travelling Light. These artists aren’t throwbacks. They’re living proof that the future doesn’t have to be chaotic if we don’t want it to be, and that artists will always do what computers cannot: go their own way.”
Songs in the Key of MP3: The New Icons of the Internet Age is out now on White Rabbit
Lovie, DJ and curator: The world is yours
“In 2025, the power went back to the people. As our artistry became more and more inextricably linked to our personal politics, we saw an upset of old rules: you don’t have to play at that venue! You don’t need to be featured on that platform, or play at that festival! Create your own! There’s a fertile reimagining of what it means to grow at your own pace, and to do so in a way that aligns with your values.”
David Kane, author: UK rap had a ‘what is this!?’ moment
“For the first time this decade, 2025 delivered a genuine ‘what is this!?’ moment for UK rap – and mainly for the right reasons. What started with Dean Blunt’s Babyfather project in the mid-2010s has evolved into something broader and more amorphous: a self-sustaining underground scene featuring the likes of EsDeeKid, Jim Legxacy and Fakemink. Although sonically closer to Sad Boys than Skepta, with their lyrics about Essex tans and a proliferation of Union Jack visuals, there’s an undeniable Britishness to this new generation. Only time will tell if 2025’s MCs become a moment or a movement.”
What Do You Call It? From Grassroots to the Golden Era of UK Rap is out now on Velocity Press
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