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Picture being gifted with a free evening. You're feeling refreshed, eager for new things, and looking to shake up your usual routine of post-work slumping. Your options is your oyster! Do you opt for a) going to a gig or b) engaging in intimacy? The outcome, as is often the case with these types of queries, is plainly: “It varies.” Reasonable people could understandably ask: what's the concert? Who's the other person? Will it be likely to be satisfying?

Not many would select a intense rock concert if the alternative was a dream date with Jonathan Bailey. However tweak any part of the scenario, and it turns more complicated. In the case of the 40,000 people presented with this choice from a live event company, no such context was offered – and the result was revealed clearly and strongly supporting live music events.

Study Data Indicate Unexpected Choices

A worldwide study, interviewing 40,000 people from 18 and 54 in multiple countries, found that concerts are now the most popular leisure activity, beating out sports, films and – indeed – sexual intercourse. When limited to only one option of entertainment forever, a significant portion picked concerts, versus film attendance (17%) and athletic competitions (14%). They were also over two times as likely to prefer attending their preferred performer on stage (70%) over sex (30%).

You show up hopeful of being pleasantly surprised – and regularly you’ll end up with another person's locks in your mouth

Context and Considerations

Naturally it makes sense that a promotional study carried out for a live event company should come out so heavily in favour of gigs – and, amid the playful spirit of a hypothetical choice, if your favourite artist is, such as a legendary singer, you can see why attending his concert could prevail rather than a common or garden situation. However this two-option scenario between concerts or sexual activity, plainly ridiculous even if it seems, is interesting to consider given the odd point we face with both.

The Transformation of Concert Culture

Lately, live music participation has become not just a shared activity but a serious endeavor. Event companies duly point out that large venue turnout has “grown significantly annually”, and festivals are fully reserved faster than ever. Merely acquiring admissions now requires detailed strategy, instant reactions and bottomless pockets (or a generous credit card limit). Though you manage, it’s not enough to just show up and enjoy the show. Currently there is an anticipation, especially for concertgoers, that you might enhance your return on investment by going multiple times (even travelling internationally), learning the set list in advance and understanding the rituals to hit and calls-and-responses established by past attendees.

Numerous attendees describe being affected by their experience at large concerts: what felt like a scripted production of huge audiences, where particular fans arrived unaware of the steps. That 18-month tour, producing huge revenue, demonstrated of the extents that people will go to participate in a cultural moment and experience their top musician play, although the real performance appears more and more overshadowed by the show.

The State of Modern Intimacy

Intimacy, by contrast – an affordable and accessible pleasure – faces dire straits. Based on recent surveys, nearly one in four of adults engaged sexually in an typical week, while just under a third were sexually inactive. In a different nation, current statistics showed that more than 25% of adults reported not having sex at all in the past year, up from smaller percentages in previous decades. Across these regions, the trend has been associated with reduced intimacy among younger people. Juxtapose this with the sector booming for large concerts and the fierce battle for tickets. Naturally it’s not as simple as a basic option between both alternatives – “do you prefer see a major tour multiple times, or remain abstinent?” – but it might be an signal of what is viewed as the more dependable pleasure.

Unexpected Similarities

Relationships and gigs are more similar than you might think. Each symbolizes the initiation of a bond, a real-world test of expectations or promise that may have developed solely in your imagination. You arrive with a basic expectation of what might happen, but anticipating delightfully amazed – and if it turns out satisfying or frustrating depends very much on if your enthusiasm and hopes correspond with partners. Quite often you’ll end up with a stranger's hair in your mouth, and afterwards be lingering for a cigarette and personal space on your own. Similarly for each, stimulants and beverages can sometimes improve or reduce the situation (but absolutely assist the most dire occasions more bearable).

Achieving Equilibrium

The magic to concerts and intimacy relies on discovering that elusive sweet spot between comfort and excitement, sameness and variation, challenge and comfort. Of course it happens only rarely – but it’s the memory of when they did, the knowledge that success is achievable, that motivates us to attempt once more: to {