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Envision being gifted with a open night. You are refreshed, ready for adventure, and hoping to break from your regular habits of relaxing at home. The world is your oyster! Would you choose a) seeing live music or b) engaging in intimacy? The answer, as typically the case with these types of hypotheticals, is obviously: “It varies.” Thinking adults might logically wonder: what is the concert? Who is the partner? Will it be going to be good?

Hardly anyone would pick a intense rock concert if the other option was one enchanted evening with a beloved celebrity. But adjust any part of the equation, and it grows less clearcut. For the thousands surveyed presented with this choice from a gig organization, no such clarification was given – and the response came out clearly and overwhelmingly supporting live music events.

Study Data Indicate Unexpected Preferences

A worldwide study, polling a large sample aged between 18 and 54 in 15 markets, showed that concerts have become the most popular form of entertainment, surpassing sports, films and – yes – sexual intercourse. If restricted to only one option of activity for the rest of their lives, nearly four in ten selected concerts, against film attendance (17%) and games (14%). Participants were significantly more as likely to choose attending their preferred performer live (70%) rather than intimacy (30%).

You appear expecting to be delightfully amazed – and quite often you could wind up with another person's locks in your mouth

Factors and Reflections

Certainly it makes sense that a promotional study conducted for a gig organizer should come out so strongly in favour of concerts – and, with the speculative spirit of a hypothetical choice, if your preferred musician is, say Paul McCartney, it's understandable why attending his concert may be chosen instead of a common or garden experience. Yet this two-option scenario between gigs or intimacy, obviously silly as it is, is interesting to consider considering the strange juncture we face with these two aspects.

The Change of Gig Attendance

Over the past few years, gig-going has grown beyond a communal experience but a intense competition. Major promoters duly point out that stadium attendance has “tripled year-over-year”, and music festivals are fully reserved quicker than before. Simply getting passes now requires military-level planning, instant reactions and bottomless pockets (or a high spending capacity). Although you’re successful, it isn't sufficient to just show up and experience the event. Currently there is an assumption, especially for concertgoers, that you could increase your experience quality by attending more than once (including overseas trips), studying the song selection in advance and knowing your marks to follow and audience interactions created by previous crowds.

Many attendees describe being affected by their attendance at major tours: appearing as a scripted production of thousands of people, in which some individuals arrived not knowing the steps. Those lengthy concert series, earning massive sums, was proof of the lengths to which attendees will push to participate in a cultural moment and watch their preferred performer perform, although the live sound appears more and more secondary to the production.

The Condition of Contemporary Sexuality

Sex, conversely – an affordable and common experience – is in challenging circumstances. Per recent surveys, about a quarter of people engaged sexually in an average week, while about three in ten were sexually inactive. In another major country, recent data revealed that a significant portion of individuals admitted to avoiding sex a single time in the last twelve months, up from smaller percentages in the past. In these areas, the trend has been associated with reduced intimacy with younger generations. Contrast this with the industry driving growth for large concerts and the fierce battle for admissions. Certainly it's more complicated as a basic option between both alternatives – “would you rather experience a popular event often, or stay celibate?” – but it might be an sign of which is perceived as the more dependable pleasure.

Surprising Parallels

Sex and live music are more similar than you might think. Each symbolizes the initiation of a connection, a actual experience of impressions or potential that may have developed just in your mind. You come with a basic expectation of what might happen, but anticipating happily shocked – and whether it proves satisfying or frustrating relies heavily on if your enthusiasm and hopes match theirs. Frequently you’ll end up with someone else’s hair in your mouth, and following be hanging out for a smoke and personal space by yourself. Similarly for each, stimulants and beverages can either enhance or lessen the event (but definitely make the most unpleasant occasions more bearable).

Finding the Balance

The magic to live events and relationships hinges on locating that hard-to-find balance between comfort and excitement, sameness and variation, work and relaxation. Certainly it occurs infrequently – but it's the remembrance of when they did, the knowledge that success is achievable, that inspires us to give it another shot: to {