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Imagine being gifted with a night off. You're feeling rejuvenated, eager for new things, and wanting to break from your regular habits of post-work slumping. The world awaits your choice! Do you prefer a) attending a concert or b) having sex? The answer, as is often the case with such kinds of hypotheticals, is clearly: “It depends.” Reasonable people might logically inquire: what kind of the gig? With whom is the companion? Could it be going to be satisfying?

Hardly anyone would pick a heavy metal lineup if the alternative was a dream date with a beloved celebrity. However tweak one side of the equation, and it turns less clearcut. For the thousands surveyed posed this query by a gig organization, no additional clarification was provided – and the answer came out clearly and overwhelmingly in favour of live music events.

Study Data Indicate Unexpected Preferences

A worldwide survey, polling thousands of participants from 18 and 54 in 15 markets, found that live music have become the number one pastime, beating out sports, movies and – indeed – sex. Given the choice to a single form of activity for the rest of their lives, 39% of respondents selected gigs, against going to the cinema (17%) and sports events (14%). They were also over two times as likely to choose attending their preferred performer in concert (70%) over sexual activity (30%).

You show up expecting to be delightfully amazed – and quite often you could wind up with someone else’s hair in your mouth

Factors and Reflections

Naturally it’s not surprising that a promotional study conducted for a gig organizer should come out so strongly preferring gigs – and, with the speculative mood of a would-you-rather, if your top performer is, for example a legendary singer, one can appreciate why watching him might win out over a ordinary situation. However this two-option scenario between gigs or intimacy, obviously silly as it is, is fascinating to consider considering the strange point we’re at with each.

The Change of Live Music Experience

Lately, gig-going has grown beyond a group event but a intense competition. Event companies rightly note that stadium attendance has “increased threefold each year”, and music festivals sell out more rapidly than previously. Merely acquiring admissions now demands military-level planning, quick decision-making and significant funds (or a substantial budget). Even if you succeed, it isn't sufficient to just show up and experience the event. Nowadays exists an assumption, at least among pop fans, that you could increase your enjoyment value by seeing several shows (including overseas trips), swotting up on the performance lineup beforehand and memorizing the cues to hit and fan traditions created by earlier audiences.

Numerous fans report feeling shaken by their participation at major tours: what seemed like a choreographed performance of thousands of people, to which particular fans came unaware of the routine. That 18-month concert series, earning massive sums, showed of the degree to which people will go to participate in a historic occasion and experience their top musician perform, although the real performance appears more and more secondary to the production.

The Situation of Contemporary Sexuality

Intimacy, conversely – an affordable and common experience – is in difficult times. According to contemporary studies, nearly one in four of adults had sex in an typical week, while about three in ten were abstaining. In a different nation, current statistics revealed that over a quarter of people said they had not sexual activity a single time in the previous year, up from lower numbers in previous decades. In these areas, the trend has been associated with decreased encounters with younger generations. Compare this with the industry booming for major events and the intense rivalry for tickets. Of course it's more complicated as a simple decision between either option – “do you prefer attend a huge concert often, or avoid intimacy?” – but it’s perhaps an signal of how people see the more reliable satisfaction.

Unexpected Similarities

Relationships and gigs are more comparable than people often believe. They both embody the commencement of a connection, a actual experience of ideas or possibility that might have amassed solely in your imagination. You arrive with some idea of the probable outcome, but hopeful of being happily shocked – and whether it proves satisfying or frustrating depends very much on how your vibe and anticipations correspond with partners. Quite often you’ll end up with someone else’s hair in your mouth, and later be waiting around for a break and personal space alone. Similarly for each, substances and drinks can either enhance or lessen the situation (but certainly help the most dire experiences easier to weather).

Achieving Equilibrium

The wonder to live events and relationships relies on finding that hard-to-find balance between the known and the new, similarity and difference, work and relaxation. Certainly it occurs infrequently – but it's the remembrance of successful moments, the awareness that it can happen, that drives us to give it another shot: to {