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Envision being gifted with a night off. You are energized, ready for adventure, and looking to break from your typical schedule of relaxing at home. Your options is your oyster! Would you opt for a) going to a gig or b) having sex? The outcome, as typically the case with these sorts of queries, is obviously: “That depends.” Reasonable people may reasonably ask: what is the concert? Who is the other person? Will it be likely to be good?

Not many would pick a intense rock concert if the alternative was a dream date with Jonathan Bailey. Yet change either end of the equation, and it turns less obvious. Regarding the participants asked this question by a major concert promoter, no such context was provided – and the result emerged decisively and strongly in favour of gigs.

Survey Results Show Surprising Trends

A worldwide study, interviewing thousands of participants from 18 and 54 from multiple countries, showed that live music currently stand as the number one pastime, surpassing sports, films and – yes – intimacy. When limited to only one option of enjoyment permanently, a significant portion selected gigs, compared to going to the cinema (17%) and games (14%). Participants were over two times as likely to choose seeing their favourite artist live (70%) rather than intimacy (30%).

You show up anticipating pleasantly surprised – and quite often you could wind up with another person's locks in your mouth

Context and Considerations

Of course it's expected that a PR survey conducted for a live event company should come out so heavily preferring concerts – and, in the freewheeling tone of a hypothetical choice, if your favourite artist is, for example a legendary singer, you can see why seeing him might win out over a routine encounter. However this two-option scenario between concerts or sex, plainly ridiculous though it may be, is fascinating to reflect on given the odd juncture we’re at with these two aspects.

The Evolution of Live Music Experience

Over the past few years, concert attendance has become not just a group event but a intense competition. Event companies appropriately highlight that arena crowds has “grown significantly year-over-year”, and live events get booked up faster than ever. Simply getting admissions now needs detailed strategy, rapid-fire response times and significant funds (or a high spending capacity). Even if you’re successful, that alone won't do to merely attend and experience the event. Nowadays exists an assumption, particularly with concertgoers, that you can boost your experience quality by attending more than once (including overseas trips), studying the song selection beforehand and memorizing the cues to hit and fan traditions developed through earlier audiences.

Several fans admit to scarred by their participation at large concerts: what felt like a choreographed performance of thousands of people, where particular fans arrived not knowing the protocol. That 18-month tour, generating billions, demonstrated of the extents that attendees will push to participate in a cultural moment and experience their top musician sing, even if the actual music grows somewhat overshadowed by the production.

The Condition of Contemporary Sexuality

Sex, by contrast – an accessible and available enjoyment – experiences challenging circumstances. Based on modern research, approximately 25% of individuals were intimate in an average week, while nearly 30% were sexually inactive. Elsewhere, recent data showed that a significant portion of people said they had not intimacy at all in the last twelve months, increasing from smaller percentages in previous decades. In these areas, the change has been attributed to decreased encounters in youth demographics. Contrast this with the industry expanding rapidly for major events and the cutthroat competition for tickets. Naturally it's more complicated as a straightforward choice between either option – “could you choose experience a popular event repeatedly, or avoid intimacy?” – but it might be an indication of how people see the more reliable pleasure.

Interesting Comparisons

Sex and live music are more comparable than you might think. They both embody the commencement of a relationship, a actual experience of impressions or promise that might have amassed only in your head. You arrive with a general notion of the probable outcome, but anticipating pleasantly surprised – and how it ends up good or bad rests largely on whether your energy and anticipations correspond with partners. Regularly you could wind up with someone else’s hair in your mouth, and later be lingering for a break and personal space on your own. Likewise with either, substances and drinks can either enhance or lessen the event (but certainly help the most unpleasant situations easier to weather).

Seeking Harmony

The magic to both gigs and sex depends on locating that elusive sweet spot between familiarity and novelty, sameness and variation, challenge and comfort. Certainly it's uncommon – but it's the recollection of when they did, the understanding that it can happen, that drives us to give it another shot: to {