Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction : special objects, special subjects

What makes you think you’re so special?

You don’t have to be mad, but it helps

Can music really make you sick?

Abundant music, excessive music?

Communicating when music is media content

Music education and the pipeline

What are we seeking to do in this book?

Sanity, madness and music

Signs of emotional distress and the new language of mental health

Music and suffering : the limits of magical thinking

Methodology : our survey findings – anxiety and depression by numbers

A deep dive : solo artists, gender and age

Interviews : understanding feeling

Conclusion : status and the rhetoric of fantasies

The status of work

Financial precarity and defining ‘work’

Work, work, work

Money and meaning

Pleasure and self-exploitation

Professionalism and value

Musical ‘success’?

How to define success

Capital, image and illusion

Failure, responsibility and identity

Expectations and the myth of the future

The achievement-expectation gap

Music as social mobility

‘Deification and demolish’

Conclusions : take part, make… content

The status of value

Validation ‘online’

Feedback and vulnerability

Competition and relevancy

Abundance and communicating

Validation in ‘the industry’

Reputation and contracts

The deal

On the role of luck

Luck, power and privilege

The myth of control and the nature of blame

Symbolic inefficiency and stickiness

Do you feel in control?

Conclusions : welcome to the ‘you’ industry

The status of relationships

Personal relationships

Family, guilt and sustainability

The role of London

Touring and family life

The work/leisure distinction

Music as a gambling addiction

Professional relationships

Women and their relationships

Sexual abuse and misogyny

Self-perception

Women online

Conclusions : drive and being ‘occupied’ by your occupation

Conclusions : what do you believe in?

Discipline and dreaming

’Twas ever thus : what’s new?

Experiencing abundance, making data

‘Let’s talk about it’ : what would living better look like?

Therapy and listening

Public policy and learning lessons?

Duty of care : responsibility and control

The case of Lil Peep

Music education now : reflections

Questions of content and new ways of teaching

Concluding thoughts : myths and wellbeing