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Envision being gifted with a open night. You are energized, eager for new things, and hoping to shake up your regular habits of evening scrolling. The world awaits your choice! Do you choose a) going to a gig or b) being with a partner? The response, as typically true with these sorts of hypotheticals, is obviously: “It varies.” Thinking adults could understandably ask: what kind of the concert? With whom is the partner? Will it be expected to be good?

Few would choose a Limp Bizkit/Slipknot/Korn triple bill if the alternative was a magical night with Jonathan Bailey. However tweak either end of the scenario, and it grows less clearcut. For the thousands surveyed presented with this choice by a live event company, no additional details was provided – and the result emerged unambiguously and overwhelmingly preferring concerts.

Study Data Indicate Surprising Preferences

A worldwide survey, interviewing a large sample ranging from 18 and 54 in multiple countries, found that live music currently stand as the world’s top form of entertainment, beating out sports, movies and – indeed – sexual intercourse. When limited to only one option of activity permanently, a significant portion picked live music, versus watching movies (17%) and games (14%). The group was significantly more as inclined to choose watching their top musician live (70%) over intimacy (30%).

You show up expecting to be delightfully amazed – and quite often you might find with a stranger's hair in your mouth

Context and Considerations

Certainly it's expected that a marketing research commissioned by a concert promoter would result so strongly in favour of live shows – and, amid the playful tone of a hypothetical choice, if your preferred musician is, say a legendary singer, you can see why watching him might win out over a routine situation. However this either-or decision between gigs or sex, obviously silly even if it seems, is interesting to think about given the odd point we experience with each.

The Change of Live Music Experience

Over the past few years, live music participation has grown beyond a communal experience but a competitive sport. Event companies duly point out that large venue turnout has “grown significantly annually”, and festivals get booked up faster than ever. Simply getting passes now demands military-level planning, rapid-fire response times and significant funds (or a generous credit card limit). Although you succeed, it’s not enough to simply turn up and watch the performance. Nowadays exists an anticipation, especially for concertgoers, that you can boost your enjoyment value by attending more than once (including overseas trips), studying the performance lineup in advance and understanding the rituals to follow and fan traditions developed through previous crowds.

Several concertgoers admit to affected by their participation at large concerts: appearing as a choreographed performance of massive crowds, where certain attendees arrived unaware of the steps. That 18-month event, generating billions, demonstrated of the degree to which attendees will push to feel part of a historic occasion and experience their top musician sing, although the live sound appears more and more secondary to the production.

The Situation of Contemporary Sexuality

Intimacy, on the other hand – a relatively cheap and accessible pleasure – experiences dire straits. Based on contemporary studies, about a quarter of people engaged sexually in an average week, while about three in ten were not engaging. Elsewhere, recent data indicated that a significant portion of people reported not having intimacy a single time in the previous year, up from lower numbers in previous decades. In both territories, the shift has been linked to less sexual activity with younger generations. Contrast this with the industry driving growth for major events and the cutthroat competition for tickets. Naturally it isn't straightforward as a simple decision between one or the other – “could you choose see a major tour repeatedly, or avoid intimacy?” – but it's possibly an sign of what is viewed as the more dependable satisfaction.

Surprising Parallels

Sex and live music are more similar than you might think. Both represent the initiation of a connection, a real-world test of expectations or possibility that may have developed just in your mind. You come with a basic expectation of what might happen, but anticipating pleasantly surprised – and whether it proves satisfying or frustrating rests largely on if your enthusiasm and anticipations match theirs. Frequently you’ll end up with another person's locks in your mouth, and later be lingering for a smoke and a moment alone on your own. And, in both cases, drugs and alcohol can potentially heighten or reduce the experience (but definitely make the worst situations simpler to handle).

Finding the Balance

The magic to live events and relationships hinges on locating that perfect combination between familiarity and novelty, sameness and variation, work and relaxation. Certainly it happens only rarely – but it's the remembrance of when it worked, the knowledge that it can happen, that drives us to give it another shot: to {