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Picture being gifted with a open night. You're feeling energized, ready for adventure, and wanting to break from your usual routine of post-work slumping. Your options offers possibilities! Do you choose a) seeing live music or b) engaging in intimacy? The response, as frequently the case with such kinds of queries, is clearly: “That depends.” Reasonable people may reasonably inquire: what is the concert? With whom is the other person? Is it going to be good?

Not many would pick a intense rock concert if the other option was a dream date with a favorite star. However tweak any part of the scenario, and it turns less obvious. For the participants asked this question from a gig organization, no such context was offered – and the result emerged decisively and overwhelmingly in favour of concerts.

Survey Results Indicate Interesting Trends

An international report, polling a large sample ranging from 18 and 54 across multiple countries, found that gigs currently stand as the number one pastime, surpassing athletic events, movies and – absolutely – sexual intercourse. Given the choice to a single form of enjoyment for the rest of their lives, 39% of respondents selected gigs, against film attendance (17%) and sports events (14%). Participants were over two times as likely to prefer attending their preferred performer live (70%) over intimacy (30%).

You arrive hopeful of being happily shocked – and frequently you might find with a stranger's hair in your mouth

Context and Considerations

Naturally it makes sense that a marketing research carried out for a concert promoter should come out so strongly in favour of live shows – and, in the freewheeling spirit of a either-or question, if your top performer is, say an iconic star, you can see why seeing him may be chosen instead of a common or garden experience. But this either-or decision between concerts or sex, obviously silly even if it seems, is interesting to think about amid the peculiar moment we’re at with each.

The Change of Live Music Experience

Lately, gig-going has evolved into more than a group event but a competitive sport. Major promoters duly point out that large venue turnout has “grown significantly annually”, and live events sell out faster than ever. Just obtaining tickets now requires detailed strategy, instant reactions and significant funds (or a generous credit card limit). Though you manage, it’s not enough to just show up and watch the performance. Nowadays exists an assumption, at least among pop fans, that you could increase your enjoyment value by seeing several shows (even travelling internationally), learning the performance lineup ahead of time and memorizing the cues to hit and audience interactions developed through past attendees.

Several concertgoers report feeling scarred by their participation at large concerts: appearing as a scripted production of massive crowds, in which certain attendees arrived not knowing the protocol. That 18-month event, generating billions, demonstrated of the degree to which fans will travel to participate in a historic occasion and see their favourite artist play, although the actual music appears more and more secondary to the show.

The Condition of Contemporary Sexuality

Intimacy, on the other hand – a relatively cheap and accessible pleasure – is in dire straits. Based on contemporary studies, approximately 25% of individuals engaged sexually in an average week, while just under a third were not engaging. Elsewhere, modern figures indicated that over a quarter of individuals admitted to avoiding sex a single time in the past year, rising from smaller percentages in earlier years. In both territories, the shift has been attributed to reduced intimacy with younger generations. Juxtapose this with the sector booming for large concerts and the intense rivalry for passes. Naturally it’s not as simple as a basic option between either option – “could you choose attend a huge concert repeatedly, or avoid intimacy?” – but it's possibly an signal of which is perceived as the more reliable pleasure.

Unexpected Similarities

Intimacy and concerts are closer aligned than people often believe. Both represent the activation of a relationship, a real-world test of impressions or promise that could have built just in your mind. You come with a general notion of what might happen, but anticipating delightfully amazed – and whether it proves enjoyable or disappointing rests largely on whether your energy and anticipations match theirs. Regularly you’ll end up with a stranger's hair in your mouth, and afterwards be waiting around for a cigarette and personal space alone. Likewise with either, substances and drinks can either enhance or lessen the experience (but absolutely assist the most dire experiences easier to weather).

Finding the Balance

The wonder to both gigs and sex hinges on discovering that hard-to-find balance between the known and the new, consistency and change, effort and ease. Certainly it occurs infrequently – but it's the remembrance of when they did, the knowledge that success is achievable, that drives us to try again: to {