A subgenre of
electronic music, also called
psychedelic trance.
Named after the
territory Goa in
India, which was also (and to a lesser extent arguably still is) a
hippy commune in the seventies.
The
music itself is hard to describe and quite diverse. The trick is the same as with ancient
tribal rituals - a monotonous
base drum has an
hypnotic effect. Consequently there are many religious (mostly
Hindu) elements mixed in, like references to
Shiva. As with the
shamans, the use of
hallucinogenic drugs is also not uncommon.
There are many open-air
Goa parties with names like
Shiva Moon (
Hamburg) or
Gaia (
Paris), which last several days.
There are a great many Goa artists, so to get an impression I'd recommend listening to one of the
Goa Head samplers.
A longer article detailing the development of Goa Parties can be found at
http://www.pwrgrrl.com/goatrance.html.
For German speakers there's also an article containing some grains of truth under
http://www.hclan.ch/goa_partys.htm.