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Imagine finding yourself with a night off. You feel refreshed, ready for adventure, and wanting to shake up your typical schedule of relaxing at home. The world awaits your choice! Could you choose a) attending a concert or b) having sex? The outcome, as is often the case with these sorts of hypotheticals, is plainly: “It depends.” Reasonable people could understandably wonder: what is the concert? Who's the partner? Could it be likely to be satisfying?

Few would pick a heavy metal lineup if the alternative was one enchanted evening with a beloved celebrity. However tweak either end of the comparison, and it grows less clearcut. For the 40,000 people posed this query from a major concert promoter, no further context was given – and the answer came out decisively and strongly preferring gigs.

Study Data Show Unexpected Trends

A global report, interviewing 40,000 people from 18 and 54 in 15 markets, revealed that gigs currently stand as the number one form of entertainment, beating out athletic events, movies and – yes – intimacy. Given the choice to a single form of enjoyment for the rest of their lives, a significant portion picked gigs, versus watching movies (17%) and games (14%). They were also over two times as likely to prefer seeing their favourite artist on stage (70%) over intimacy (30%).

You appear anticipating happily shocked – and quite often you could wind up with someone else’s hair in your mouth

Perspectives and Analysis

Certainly it’s not surprising that a promotional study commissioned by a concert promoter should come out so heavily supporting live shows – and, with the speculative mood of a hypothetical choice, if your preferred musician is, for example an iconic star, one can appreciate why attending his concert could prevail instead of a routine situation. But this binary choice between live music or sexual activity, obviously silly as it is, is fascinating to think about considering the strange juncture we face with both.

The Evolution of Live Music Experience

In recent years, live music participation has become not just a shared activity but a serious endeavor. Event companies rightly note that arena crowds has “grown significantly each year”, and live events sell out more rapidly than previously. Merely acquiring tickets now requires detailed strategy, rapid-fire response times and deep finances (or a high spending capacity). Although you manage, it isn't sufficient to just show up and watch the performance. There’s now an assumption, particularly with pop fans, that you might enhance your return on investment by going multiple times (even travelling internationally), learning the song selection ahead of time and knowing your marks to follow and fan traditions developed through previous crowds.

Many attendees admit to scarred by their participation at large concerts: what seemed like a scripted production of huge audiences, to which some individuals arrived unaware of the steps. The extended concert series, earning massive sums, showed of the lengths to which people will go to participate in a significant event and experience their top musician play, even if the actual music appears more and more less important than the show.

The State of Modern Intimacy

Intimacy, conversely – an affordable and available enjoyment – faces dire straits. Based on contemporary studies, nearly one in four of individuals engaged sexually in an average week, while just under a third were sexually inactive. Elsewhere, recent data indicated that over a quarter of individuals reported not having sex at all in the last twelve months, increasing from lower numbers in the past. Across these regions, the shift has been associated with less sexual activity in youth demographics. Juxtapose this with the sector expanding rapidly for stadium extravaganzas and the intense rivalry for tickets. Naturally it's more complicated as a simple decision between both alternatives – “would you rather experience a popular event multiple times, or avoid intimacy?” – but it's possibly an indication of which is perceived as the more consistent satisfaction.

Interesting Comparisons

Relationships and gigs are more comparable than one may assume. They both embody the initiation of a relationship, a practical trial of ideas or possibility that might have amassed only in your head. You come with a general notion of how it’s likely to go, but expecting to be happily shocked – and whether it proves satisfying or frustrating relies heavily on whether your energy and expectations align with others. Regularly you could wind up with a stranger's hair in your mouth, and following be hanging out for a break and a moment alone alone. Likewise with either, drugs and alcohol can potentially heighten or detract from the event (but absolutely assist the worst experiences more bearable).

Seeking Harmony

The wonder to live events and relationships hinges on finding that elusive sweet spot between the known and the new, sameness and variation, work and relaxation. Naturally it occurs infrequently – but it's the remembrance of when they did, the knowledge that it can happen, that inspires us to try again: to {