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Picture finding yourself with a night off. You're feeling energized, open to experience, and wanting to shake up your usual routine of relaxing at home. Life itself is your oyster! Could you prefer a) seeing live music or b) having sex? The response, as frequently the case with such kinds of questions, is clearly: “That depends.” Reasonable people could understandably inquire: what kind of the show? Who is the other person? Could it be likely to be good?

Not many would select a intense rock concert if the other option was a dream date with Jonathan Bailey. However tweak any part of the equation, and it turns more complicated. For the thousands surveyed posed this query from a major concert promoter, no such details was given – and the response was revealed clearly and overwhelmingly in favour of gigs.

Research Findings Indicate Interesting Preferences

A worldwide study, interviewing a large sample from 18 and 54 from 15 markets, revealed that live music have become the number one leisure activity, surpassing athletic events, movies and – absolutely – sexual intercourse. If restricted to a single form of entertainment for the rest of their lives, nearly four in ten selected gigs, against going to the cinema (17%) and sports events (14%). The group was over two times as inclined to prefer attending their preferred performer live (70%) rather than sex (30%).

You show up anticipating happily shocked – and quite often you could wind up with a stranger's hair in your mouth

Factors and Reflections

Certainly it makes sense that a PR survey carried out for a live event company should come out so overwhelmingly supporting concerts – and, amid the playful tone of a hypothetical choice, if your preferred musician is, for example Paul McCartney, you can see why watching him might win out instead of a routine encounter. But this binary choice between concerts or intimacy, clearly absurd even if it seems, is fascinating to think about considering the strange moment we’re at with both.

The Evolution of Concert Culture

Over the past few years, concert attendance has become not just a group event but a serious endeavor. Event companies appropriately highlight that large venue turnout has “grown significantly each year”, and music festivals sell out more rapidly than previously. Simply getting passes now needs extensive preparation, quick decision-making and deep finances (or a high spending capacity). Although you succeed, it’s not enough to merely attend and watch the performance. There’s now an expectation, especially for music enthusiasts, that you might enhance your return on investment by going multiple times (potentially going abroad), studying the set list ahead of time and knowing your marks to hit and audience interactions established by earlier audiences.

Several attendees report feeling affected by their participation at major tours: what seemed like a scripted production of huge audiences, in which certain attendees arrived unfamiliar with the routine. That 18-month event, generating billions, showed of the lengths to which people will go to experience a historic occasion and see their favourite artist perform, though the live sound grows somewhat less important than the spectacle.

The Condition of Contemporary Sexuality

Sexual activity, conversely – a relatively cheap and available enjoyment – faces difficult times. Per modern research, nearly one in four of adults had sex in an average week, while about three in ten were abstaining. Elsewhere, current statistics indicated that over a quarter of people reported not having sexual activity a single time in the previous year, increasing from lower numbers in earlier years. Across these regions, the trend has been associated with decreased encounters in youth demographics. Contrast this with the market driving growth for stadium extravaganzas and the fierce battle for admissions. Certainly it's more complicated as a straightforward choice between either option – “would you rather experience a popular event multiple times, or remain abstinent?” – but it’s perhaps an signal of how people see the more consistent satisfaction.

Surprising Parallels

Sex and live music are more comparable than one may assume. They both embody the initiation of a bond, a real-world test of expectations or promise that may have developed just in your mind. You arrive with a basic expectation of what might happen, but expecting to be happily shocked – and whether it proves good or bad relies heavily on if your enthusiasm and anticipations correspond with partners. Regularly you might find with a stranger's hair in your mouth, and later be waiting around for a break and personal space by yourself. And, in both cases, substances and drinks can potentially heighten or detract from the event (but certainly help the most dire occasions more bearable).

Finding the Balance

The magic to live events and relationships relies on discovering that elusive sweet spot between familiarity and novelty, consistency and change, challenge and comfort. Of course it's uncommon – but it’s the memory of when they did, the knowledge that success is achievable, that drives us to give it another shot: to {