How has the Australian music industry’s mental health crisis played out in the media during the coronavirus pandemic? This commentary article considers a snapshot of media reports about this issue. We survey print and online media, press releases, official websites, online seminars and social media from March to June 2020. During this time, the industry has faced financial loss, job insecurity and anxiety for the future of Australian music, thus placing unprecedented strain on an industry already characterised by poor mental health. We identify four key narratives communicated by the media, which we call (1) acknowledging grief and loss, (2) supporting creativity and well-being, (3) adapting to the new normal and (4) envisaging a post-pandemic future. These narratives illustrate overarching concern for music industry workers’ mental health and also the provision of helpful strategies for managing these issues.

This article offers reflections on the impact of COVID-19 on the arts and entertainment industries in Australia, with a specific focus on the music industry. The pandemic has placed added financial and psychological strain on the industry’s workers and performing artists, many of whom were already struggling emotionally with financial instability and job insecurity prior to the pandemic. The federal government’s inadequate financial support for arts workers, and its failure to protect Australia’s cultural and economic assets of live music and entertainment during the pandemic, are discussed. There is a need for a COVID-19 recovery plan that addresses the impacts of the pandemic and pre-existing issues of financial instability as well as the federal government’s undervaluing and underfunding of arts industries in Australia. The article is written from the perspective of the authors’ personal experiences as creative practitioners and researchers in the creative industries, and is based on media articles and research reports published prior to and during the pandemic (2018–2021).

Negev (Israel) A few years ago I was in Thailand to give a talk at a conference in Bangkok on the "post-Zionist performance of Israeliness" among Israeli psytrancers in Thailand. I had the pleasure of meeting Robert A. Leonard, an American professor of forensic linguistics, who turned out to be an old friend of my doctoral advisor as well as a founding member and bassist of Sha Na Na, the rock and roll doo-wop group who (wearing satin gold sweat suits) opened for Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. When I asked Leonard "how does it feel when you're making history?", he responded that when people "make history", they are usually too busy doing it to fully notice the magnitude of what they are achieving. Afterwards, what one recalls often overlaps and gets filtered through the authorized account of the event. This notion came to mind after reading Goa: 20 Years of Psychedelic Trance. This coffee table book, elegantly published and stylishly edited, ventures to capture and convey the romance and excitement that accompanied the expansions of Goa psytrance music and culture in the past few decades. Goa is an engaging book, lavished with original artwork and vivid photography depicting psychedelic trance events from across the globe and offering readers a portrayal of life in full HD. The forty-two chapters, over 500 color photos and a companion DVD featuring an "unreleased" montage of Goa music and parties provide a well-informed account of the phenomenal Goa psychedelic trance social movement from its early days in Goa to its (r)evolutionary proliferation "right across the planet, going through every culture and social class as well as every spiritual, religious, political, sexual, musical, philosophical and economic orientation"(14). The period indicated in the subtitle (1990-2010) does not refer to specific dates or precise events, nor does it entirely account for 'the story of psytrance'. Rather, during these two decades, the Goa movement underwent a process of formalization Reviews

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