OKC music saw high notes, low blows in challenging 2025

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OKLAHOMA CITY – 2025 was a hard year.

Let’s not sugarcoat or downplay anything here, it’s been a rough, consistently challenging twelve month span, concerning at its best and absolutely devastating at its worst, with practically every day bringing a new flood of frustrations and infuriations in the forms of news reports, allegations, and often even bald, open statements.

But as ever, we have art and music to express those feelings and to rally our thoughts and our troops, to remind ourselves of who we are, what we stand for, and what we won’t.

All of that was reflected in Oklahoma City’s music scene this year.

From multi-cultural anthems of defiance and protest to songs of hometown pride, personal crises, and dark surrealism, the best music pouring out of the OKC Metro in 2025 was all about putting your foot down and staking claim to your own life and your own mind, even if it was uncomfortable.

Especially if it was uncomfortable.

But there was also plenty to be happy about in local music this year, and plenty to celebrate, including some significant attention on the national stage, some massive festivals and showcases of our community’s creativity, and some altogether awesome trends pushing the scene in new and exciting directions.

So let’s dive back into 2025 one last time before putting it behind us for good.

Political statements

There’s no way around it, 2025 will be remembered for the unprecedented political upheaval and the life-changing, eye-opening emotions that it all spawned, and that was as evident as ever in OKC’s music.

Some of it was personal and poetic, like Beau Jennings’ sadly contemplative “Second Deer,” and some of it was brutal and nihilist, like Bugnog’s blistering “American Dreamed.”

But the heart and soul of the year’s most pointed and political musical statements came, appropriately, from OKC’s own Latino community.

Singer/songwriter Jose Hernandez poured the pain of the moment and the spirit of his heritage together into songs like “White Vans,” dropped first as part of J + The Bishops and then re-categorized under his more personal and evocative alter ego, Challo. It’s a song about the unbreakable hearts of the Hispanic people and about the continuing exploitation they face.

And then there’s possibly the single most important development of OKC music in 2025, and it doesn’t even involve a track released this year.

Amid protests, countercultural actions, political uprisings, and pushback, Lincka’s 2022 single “Chinga La Migra” was picked up and spread nationwide as an anthem of Hispanic spirit and open defiance against the weapons of fear. Already a statement of immigrant pride and resistance, the song was made for the moment that this year unfortunately provided, and the fact that it was found and elevated as an anthem was unexpected, but deeply welcome.

Norman Music Fest nails it

If I’m not mistaken, I’ve been to every Norman Music Festival that’s ever taken place. And that’s no big brag, of course, as it’s been a lynchpin of the Norman and OKC scenes for well over a decade with countless repeat crowds.

But I say that I’ve been to every one of them so that you’ll know I speak with some authority when I say 2025’s installment was probably the best it’s ever been.

But here’s my big confession: I didn’t even catch any of the big, out-of-state headliners. I didn’t see La Luz or Being Dead, despite fans going wild with anticipation and praise for their sets.

No, this year’s festival was the best purely on the merits of its Oklahoma locals, and more than that, its embracing of diversity in styles, sounds, cultures, and fanbases.

An all-day Saturday stage dedicated entirely to some of the best Oklahoman hip-hop, with Original Flow and The Wavvez pulling out a whole theatrical, action/dance opening, followed by the untouchable Jabee with beats by DJ Reaper and the legendary Apollo Brown? Yes, please.

Native songstress Sierra Spirit elevated to the Main Stage? Yes. Art-pop warriors stepmom taking their full, oozing, anti-corporate Profitopia production all the way to headliner status? Double yes.

Plus, the probably, potentially, maybe last-ever Sativa Prophets NMF set, a scorching hot performance that would’ve blown the doors off the Prohibition Lounge, except that there were so many people, the doors couldn’t close.

The energy on all three days felt different this year (even with the rains crying a little havoc on Saturday morning) and that seemed to be down to the palpable power of our own homegrown artists.

What wave emo is this?

Part of that unhinged energy at NMF, in fact, was thanks to the year’s unbridled resurgence of guitar-blasting, heart-bleeding emo, with breakouts like SUNFO and CLIFFDIVER claiming some of the buzziest slots of the fest.

But acts lie daychaser and Red Sun also made waves, and Ben Quad burst onto the national scene as one of the biggest Okie breakouts that we’ve seen in years, dropping the acclaimed new album “Wisher” on legendary label Pure Noise before storming Beer City for the release show.

And heavy-hitting hardcore outfit Naturalist returned to the scene after eight years to drop the refreshingly communal “You Don’t Have to Worry,” featuring some of the rawest pleading emotion of any local drop this year.

Like it or not, it looks like the kids are getting sad and loud again.

The God MC’s double-header

Chris The God Mc Cain has been one of the most respected names OKC hip-hop for years, but in 2025, he dropped a pair of major statements of hometown pride, street-level realism, and community confidence that stepped up his own game and may have elevated his whole scene.

All the way back in June, McCain dropped “A EASTSIDE STORY,” a gritty, bluntly delivered slap in the face about the Eastside OKC community that’s his home and his proving ground and the myriad influences, inspirations, and experiences that it’s given him.

The straightforward and blatant refrain on “The World is…” is surely one of the most pointed and compellingly self-aware lyrics that anyone anywhere wrote in 2025, when after declaring the superiority and cultural prowess of his neighborhood to God and the world, he’s met with “you know the world is bigger than the Eastside, right?”

It’s the kind of wind-stealing line that too many artists would never think to hit themselves with.

Then in November, McCain teamed with producer SauceMeUpGQ to deliver “Birds Fly East,” a second full-length effort celebrating the full creative power of Eastside artists and the full history and scope of Black music, where the harsh reality of “The World is…” is answered by the hopeful rallying call of “Take Your Song Worldwide.”

It’s a one-two punch of albums that shows an artist at the top of his output while placing him firmly in the scene he’s worked to develop.

Building a mystery

Mystery Class Records broke onto the scene this year and immediately began dominating everything from emo, goth, and indie to left-field electronica, all showcased on their first-ever sampler, “Side Quests Vol. 1.” It’s pound-for-pound one of OKC’s best releases and gave us possibly my favorite local track of the year, “Love Potions” by Sweetest Pot.

But Mystery Class was also behind a couple of the other best local drops of the year, unleashing both Donovan Funk’s brooding, bruised “For a Moment I was Warm” and powdr’s vibe-heavy, driving post-punk standout “Settle Pain.”

And it seems like Mystery Class has only added to their roster throughout the year, so here’s hoping for “Side Quests Vol. 2” soon, yeah?

Defying explanation

For all of OKC’s many scenes and sounds, the best stuff will always be the offerings that straddle the lines and defy easy categorization or explanation.

Original Flow and The Wavvez finally dropped their long-awaited “Words for the Mindfull,” recorded live at Factory Obscura and released with all of Flow’s unedited thoughts and thanks, blurring the lines between spoken word celebration and musical concert as much as the lines between rap, funk, and rock.

Rainbows are Free released their tone-melding, surrealist-metal “Silver and Gold” like a kraken across Oklahoma, finding new ways to twist the expectations of guitar-focused metal into the realms of glam and psychadelia.

And of course no one in OKC obliterates the lines between styles, genres, cultures, and expectations quite like Sun Deep, who finally gave us a full-length solo effort in the form of “Ghar.” Blending hip-hop beats, lo-fi atmospheres, guitar orchestrations, sample manipulations, and his own Indian background and Hindi language, it might just be the most sonically exciting and creative OKC album of the year.

High notes, low blows

The highs of 2025 were ones that we held tightly and tried to foster and nurture into lasting victories, especially as so many parts of the year were way less than ideal, even in the music scene.

Venues continued to struggle and locals continued to battle the growing apathy that keeps concertgoers at home.

Inflation across the entire national economy obviously meant fewer funds for music fans to drop on albums, merch, and concert tickets and fewer resources for artists looking to expand their offerings or press their albums.

And of course, the entire music world was besieged by AI and increasingly predatory streaming services.

Some artists pulled their releases from outlets like Spotify entirely while others saw their streaming profiles overrun by AI-generated imposters or even just unfortunately similarly named bot-created slop.

But over the year, we realized that the only effective way to fight back against these forces would be together, leaning on community and tightening up across boundaries of style and sound.

Our cross-genre showcases like the Jarvix-led Weirder Wednesday at Opolis and Nia Mone’s MOOD CRTL at Blue Note popped off harder than ever, proving that the lines we draw between scenes aren’t real and that voices and visions across the creative community will support one another regardless of labels or expectations.

Or at least that’s the hope that I’m taking into 2026.

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You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.

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