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Picture being gifted with a free evening. You're feeling refreshed, ready for adventure, and hoping to break from your typical schedule of evening scrolling. The world offers possibilities! Do you opt for a) seeing live music or b) engaging in intimacy? The response, as typically true with these types of hypotheticals, is plainly: “It depends.” Mature individuals could understandably wonder: what's the gig? With whom is the companion? Will it be going to be enjoyable?

Hardly anyone would select a Limp Bizkit/Slipknot/Korn triple bill if the other option was one enchanted evening with a beloved celebrity. Yet change either end of the equation, and it becomes more complicated. For the participants presented with this choice by a major concert promoter, no additional context was provided – and the answer emerged unambiguously and overwhelmingly in favour of live music events.

Research Findings Indicate Surprising Trends

A worldwide survey, interviewing a large sample from 18 and 54 from 15 markets, found that live music currently stand as the most popular leisure activity, ranking above sports, cinema and – yes – intimacy. If restricted to a single form of entertainment permanently, nearly four in ten selected gigs, against going to the cinema (17%) and sports events (14%). The group was significantly more as prone to prefer attending their preferred performer live (70%) rather than sex (30%).

You appear anticipating happily shocked – and regularly you might find with someone else’s hair in your mouth

Context and Considerations

Certainly it makes sense that a promotional study carried out for a live event company would result so overwhelmingly in favour of gigs – and, in the freewheeling spirit of a either-or question, if your favourite artist is, say an iconic star, one can appreciate why attending his concert may be chosen instead of a routine encounter. But this two-option scenario between concerts or sex, obviously silly though it may be, is interesting to reflect on considering the strange juncture we experience with each.

The Change of Live Music Experience

Over the past few years, concert attendance has grown beyond a shared activity but a intense competition. Live organizations rightly note that large venue turnout has “grown significantly year-over-year”, and music festivals sell out more rapidly than previously. Simply getting admissions now demands extensive preparation, quick decision-making and bottomless pockets (or a high spending capacity). Even if you succeed, it isn't sufficient to simply turn up and watch the performance. There’s now an expectation, at least among concertgoers, that you might enhance your experience quality by attending more than once (potentially going abroad), learning the set list ahead of time and understanding the rituals to follow and fan traditions developed through past attendees.

Numerous attendees admit to affected by their attendance at popular events: what felt like a orchestrated show of massive crowds, in which some individuals arrived unfamiliar with the steps. The extended tour, earning massive sums, demonstrated of the lengths to which fans will travel to participate in a cultural moment and experience their top musician perform, even if the actual music grows somewhat overshadowed by the show.

The State of Current Relationships

Sex, on the other hand – a relatively cheap and available enjoyment – is in dire straits. Per contemporary studies, nearly one in four of adults engaged sexually in an average week, while about three in ten were sexually inactive. Elsewhere, current statistics revealed that more than 25% of adults said they had not intimacy even once in the previous year, up from lower numbers in previous decades. In both territories, the change has been attributed to decreased encounters with younger generations. Juxtapose this with the industry driving growth for large concerts and the intense rivalry for admissions. Certainly it’s not as simple as a basic option between both alternatives – “would you rather see a major tour often, or stay celibate?” – but it might be an signal of what is viewed as the more consistent enjoyment.

Surprising Parallels

Intimacy and concerts are more similar than one may assume. Both represent the activation of a relationship, a actual experience of expectations or promise that may have developed solely in your imagination. You show up with a general notion of how it’s likely to go, but expecting to be delightfully amazed – and if it turns out good or bad rests largely on if your enthusiasm and anticipations correspond with partners. Quite often you could wind up with a stranger's hair in your mouth, and afterwards be lingering for a break and personal space alone. Likewise with either, substances and drinks can sometimes improve or reduce the event (but absolutely assist the most unpleasant occasions easier to weather).

Seeking Harmony

The wonder to concerts and intimacy depends on locating that hard-to-find balance between the known and the new, sameness and variation, effort and ease. Naturally it occurs infrequently – but it’s the memory of successful moments, the knowledge that it can happen, that drives us to give it another shot: to {