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Envision having a free evening. You're feeling energized, ready for adventure, and looking to change your typical schedule of post-work slumping. Life itself awaits your choice! Do you opt for a) going to a gig or b) engaging in intimacy? The answer, as typically the case with these sorts of questions, is clearly: “It varies.” Thinking adults may reasonably ask: what is the gig? With whom is the other person? Is it going to be satisfying?

Hardly anyone would select a intense rock concert if the choice was a magical night with Jonathan Bailey. However tweak either end of the scenario, and it grows more complicated. In the case of the 40,000 people asked this question from a major concert promoter, no such details was offered – and the response was revealed clearly and overwhelmingly in favour of gigs.

Survey Results Indicate Surprising Preferences

An international report, polling a large sample from 18 and 54 from multiple countries, found that live music are now the most popular leisure activity, beating out athletic events, cinema and – absolutely – intimacy. If restricted to only one option of entertainment permanently, nearly four in ten picked gigs, against watching movies (17%) and athletic competitions (14%). The group was more than twice as inclined to prefer watching their top musician in concert (70%) over sex (30%).

You show up anticipating delightfully amazed – and regularly you could wind up with someone else’s hair in your mouth

Context and Considerations

Of course it's expected that a promotional study commissioned by a concert promoter might conclude so heavily supporting live shows – and, amid the playful tone of a either-or question, if your preferred musician is, for example a legendary singer, it's understandable why attending his concert might win out rather than a ordinary experience. However this either-or decision between gigs or intimacy, plainly ridiculous as it is, is interesting to consider considering the strange moment we face with both.

The Evolution of Gig Attendance

In recent years, concert attendance has evolved into more than a shared activity but a competitive sport. Event companies appropriately highlight that stadium attendance has “increased threefold annually”, and live events get booked up quicker than before. Merely acquiring passes now requires military-level planning, quick decision-making and bottomless pockets (or a substantial budget). Although you succeed, that alone won't do to simply turn up and watch the performance. Nowadays exists an expectation, at least among pop fans, that you could increase your return on investment by going multiple times (including overseas trips), studying the performance lineup ahead of time and understanding the rituals to follow and fan traditions established by past attendees.

Several attendees describe being shaken by their attendance at large concerts: appearing as a orchestrated show of massive crowds, where some individuals arrived unaware of the steps. Those lengthy concert series, generating billions, was proof of the degree to which fans will travel to feel part of a historic occasion and experience their top musician perform, although the actual music appears more and more secondary to the spectacle.

The Condition of Current Relationships

Sex, by contrast – a relatively cheap and accessible pleasure – is in dire straits. Based on recent surveys, approximately 25% of people engaged sexually in an average week, while nearly 30% were abstaining. In a different nation, modern figures revealed that over a quarter of individuals said they had not sexual activity a single time in the past year, increasing from fewer people in earlier years. In both territories, the change has been attributed to reduced intimacy in youth demographics. Compare this with the market driving growth for large concerts and the cutthroat competition for tickets. Of course it isn't straightforward as a simple decision between one or the other – “would you rather experience a popular event often, or stay celibate?” – but it's possibly an signal of which is perceived as the more consistent enjoyment.

Surprising Parallels

Sex and live music are more comparable than people often believe. Both represent the commencement of a connection, a actual experience of ideas or promise that could have built solely in your imagination. You arrive with some idea of the probable outcome, but anticipating pleasantly surprised – and how it ends up enjoyable or disappointing rests largely on whether your energy and hopes align with others. Frequently you’ll end up with someone else’s hair in your mouth, and afterwards be hanging out for a break and some quiet time on your own. And, in both cases, drugs and alcohol can sometimes improve or lessen the experience (but absolutely assist the most unpleasant situations easier to weather).

Achieving Equilibrium

The magic to live events and relationships hinges on locating that hard-to-find balance between comfort and excitement, similarity and difference, effort and ease. Of course it occurs infrequently – but it’s the memory of successful moments, the awareness that it’s possible, that inspires us to attempt once more: to {