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Envision having a night off. You are refreshed, ready for adventure, and wanting to change your usual routine of post-work slumping. The world is your oyster! Would you prefer a) going to a gig or b) being with a partner? The outcome, as typically seen with these types of hypotheticals, is plainly: “It varies.” Reasonable people might logically ask: what's the show? Who's the companion? Will it be expected to be good?

Few would choose a heavy metal lineup if the other option was a dream date with a beloved celebrity. Yet change one side of the comparison, and it grows less obvious. For the thousands surveyed posed this query through a live event company, no additional details was provided – and the response emerged unambiguously and heavily supporting live music events.

Research Findings Show Surprising Preferences

An international study, questioning a large sample ranging from 18 and 54 in 15 markets, showed that concerts currently stand as the number one leisure activity, beating out athletic events, films and – indeed – intimacy. Given the choice to a single form of enjoyment forever, a significant portion chose concerts, compared to film attendance (17%) and athletic competitions (14%). The group was over two times as inclined to prefer watching their top musician on stage (70%) instead of sex (30%).

You show up expecting to be delightfully amazed – and frequently you’ll end up with someone else’s hair in your mouth

Context and Considerations

Certainly it’s not surprising that a PR survey conducted for a concert promoter might conclude so heavily in favour of concerts – and, amid the playful mood of a hypothetical choice, if your preferred musician is, for example a legendary singer, it's understandable why attending his concert may be chosen instead of a common or garden experience. However this binary choice between live music or intimacy, plainly ridiculous even if it seems, is interesting to think about given the odd juncture we face with each.

The Transformation of Live Music Experience

In recent years, concert attendance has grown beyond a shared activity but a intense competition. Event companies appropriately highlight that large venue turnout has “grown significantly year-over-year”, and music festivals are fully reserved quicker than before. Simply getting tickets now requires military-level planning, instant reactions and significant funds (or a generous credit card limit). Although you succeed, that alone won't do to just show up and enjoy the show. There’s now an assumption, especially for concertgoers, that you could increase your enjoyment value by attending more than once (including overseas trips), studying the set list beforehand and understanding the rituals to perform and calls-and-responses created by previous crowds.

Many attendees admit to affected by their attendance at major tours: appearing as a choreographed performance of huge audiences, in which some individuals arrived unaware of the steps. The extended tour, producing huge revenue, showed of the extents that attendees will push to experience a historic occasion and watch their preferred performer sing, although the real performance seems increasingly overshadowed by the show.

The Situation of Contemporary Sexuality

Sexual activity, on the other hand – an accessible and available enjoyment – experiences difficult times. Based on recent surveys, about a quarter of adults engaged sexually in an regular period, while about three in ten were abstaining. In another major country, modern figures revealed that over a quarter of individuals said they had not intimacy a single time in the past year, up from fewer people in the past. In both territories, the shift has been attributed to reduced intimacy with younger generations. Contrast this with the industry booming for major events and the cutthroat competition for passes. Certainly it's more complicated as a simple decision between one or the other – “could you choose experience a popular event often, or stay celibate?” – but it might be an signal of how people see the more consistent pleasure.

Unexpected Similarities

Sex and live music are closer aligned than people often believe. Each symbolizes the commencement of a bond, a actual experience of expectations or possibility that might have amassed solely in your imagination. You arrive with some idea of what might happen, but hopeful of being delightfully amazed – and if it turns out good or bad relies heavily on whether your energy and anticipations align with others. Quite often you could wind up with another person's locks in your mouth, and afterwards be hanging out for a cigarette and some quiet time on your own. Likewise with either, substances and drinks can potentially heighten or reduce the experience (but definitely make the most unpleasant situations simpler to handle).

Finding the Balance

The appeal to both gigs and sex hinges on finding that elusive sweet spot between comfort and excitement, similarity and difference, challenge and comfort. Of course it happens only rarely – but it's the remembrance of when they did, the awareness that success is achievable, that drives us to try again: to {