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Envision having a free evening. You feel rejuvenated, open to experience, and hoping to shake up your regular habits of post-work slumping. Your options is your oyster! Could you choose a) seeing live music or b) having sex? The answer, as frequently seen with such kinds of queries, is clearly: “It varies.” Reasonable people might logically inquire: what is the concert? Who's the companion? Is it likely to be good?

Hardly anyone would select a Limp Bizkit/Slipknot/Korn triple bill if the choice was one enchanted evening with a beloved celebrity. But adjust either end of the equation, and it becomes less obvious. For the 40,000 people presented with this choice from a gig organization, no such clarification was offered – and the response came out decisively and heavily in favour of gigs.

Survey Results Show Surprising Preferences

A global survey, interviewing thousands of participants ranging from 18 and 54 across 15 markets, showed that gigs have become the world’s top pastime, ranking above games, cinema and – absolutely – sexual intercourse. Given the choice to one type of enjoyment forever, a significant portion chose gigs, versus watching movies (17%) and games (14%). The group was more than twice as prone to choose seeing their favourite artist in concert (70%) instead of sex (30%).

You arrive hopeful of being delightfully amazed – and regularly you could wind up with someone else’s hair in your mouth

Context and Considerations

Certainly it's expected that a PR survey commissioned by a concert promoter might conclude so strongly supporting gigs – and, in the freewheeling spirit of a hypothetical choice, if your preferred musician is, for example an iconic star, it's understandable why seeing him may be chosen instead of a common or garden situation. However this two-option scenario between live music or sexual activity, clearly absurd even if it seems, is fascinating to reflect on given the odd juncture we’re at with both.

The Change of Live Music Experience

Lately, live music participation has become not just a group event but a competitive sport. Live organizations appropriately highlight that arena crowds has “increased threefold each year”, and festivals sell out faster than ever. Merely acquiring tickets now requires detailed strategy, quick decision-making and significant funds (or a substantial budget). Although you’re successful, that alone won't do to just show up and enjoy the show. Currently there is an expectation, especially for music enthusiasts, that you might enhance your enjoyment value by seeing several shows (including overseas trips), studying the set list beforehand and understanding the rituals to perform and calls-and-responses created by past attendees.

Many fans report feeling affected by their attendance at popular events: what seemed like a choreographed performance of huge audiences, where certain attendees came unfamiliar with the protocol. Those lengthy concert series, generating billions, was proof of the lengths to which attendees will push to feel part of a significant event and experience their top musician perform, although the real performance grows somewhat secondary to the spectacle.

The Condition of Modern Intimacy

Intimacy, by contrast – a relatively cheap and accessible pleasure – faces difficult times. Per contemporary studies, nearly one in four of individuals were intimate in an average week, while about three in ten were abstaining. In a different nation, modern figures indicated that more than 25% of individuals said they had not sex at all in the last twelve months, rising from fewer people in previous decades. Across these regions, the trend has been associated with less sexual activity among younger people. Contrast this with the sector booming for stadium extravaganzas and the cutthroat competition for admissions. Of course it’s not as simple as a simple decision between either option – “could you choose experience a popular event repeatedly, or stay celibate?” – but it's possibly an indication of what is viewed as the more consistent pleasure.

Surprising Parallels

Sex and live music are closer aligned than you might think. Each symbolizes the activation of a relationship, a actual experience of impressions or potential that may have developed solely in your imagination. You come with a general notion of the probable outcome, but hopeful of being pleasantly surprised – and if it turns out satisfying or frustrating rests largely on how your vibe and anticipations match theirs. Frequently you could wind up with someone else’s hair in your mouth, and afterwards be hanging out for a smoke and personal space by yourself. Similarly for each, drugs and alcohol can potentially heighten or detract from the experience (but absolutely assist the most dire occasions simpler to handle).

Seeking Harmony

The magic to live events and relationships relies on discovering that perfect combination between familiarity and novelty, sameness and variation, work and relaxation. Naturally it happens only rarely – but it's the recollection of when they did, the understanding that it can happen, that inspires us to give it another shot: to {