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Picture being gifted with a open night. You feel energized, eager for new things, and wanting to break from your typical schedule of post-work slumping. Your options awaits your choice! Would you opt for a) going to a gig or b) engaging in intimacy? The response, as is often the case with these types of questions, is clearly: “It varies.” Mature individuals could understandably ask: what is the gig? With whom is the partner? Is it likely to be good?

Hardly anyone would select a Limp Bizkit/Slipknot/Korn triple bill if the other option was one enchanted evening with Jonathan Bailey. Yet change one side of the comparison, and it grows more complicated. For the thousands surveyed asked this question from a gig organization, no such clarification was provided – and the response emerged clearly and strongly supporting live music events.

Research Findings Indicate Surprising Choices

A global report, interviewing thousands of participants ranging from 18 and 54 from multiple countries, found that live music currently stand as the world’s top pastime, beating out athletic events, movies and – absolutely – intimacy. If restricted to a single form of entertainment for the rest of their lives, a significant portion chose live music, against watching movies (17%) and sports events (14%). Participants were significantly more as inclined to prefer watching their top musician on stage (70%) over intimacy (30%).

You appear expecting to be happily shocked – and regularly you could wind up with a stranger's hair in your mouth

Factors and Reflections

Certainly it’s not surprising that a PR survey conducted for a gig organizer would result so heavily preferring concerts – and, amid the playful spirit of a either-or question, if your favourite artist is, say Paul McCartney, one can appreciate why seeing him could prevail instead of a routine situation. But this two-option scenario between live music or sexual activity, obviously silly 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, concert attendance has grown beyond a group event but a competitive sport. Event companies appropriately highlight that arena crowds has “grown significantly year-over-year”, and festivals get booked up faster than ever. Merely acquiring passes now needs extensive preparation, rapid-fire response times and deep finances (or a high spending capacity). Although you manage, it isn't sufficient to simply turn up and experience the event. Currently there is an anticipation, particularly with music enthusiasts, that you might enhance your experience quality by going multiple times (even travelling internationally), learning the performance lineup in advance and understanding the rituals to perform and calls-and-responses established by previous crowds.

Many concertgoers describe being affected by their experience at popular events: what felt like a scripted production of thousands of people, where some individuals arrived not knowing the protocol. That 18-month tour, producing huge revenue, showed of the lengths to which people will go to experience a historic occasion and experience their top musician perform, even if the real performance appears more and more less important than the spectacle.

The State of Contemporary Sexuality

Sex, on the other hand – a relatively cheap and available enjoyment – experiences difficult times. Based on contemporary studies, about a quarter of adults were intimate in an regular period, while nearly 30% were abstaining. Elsewhere, recent data revealed that over a quarter of adults reported not having intimacy even once in the last twelve months, increasing from fewer people in previous decades. Across these regions, the trend has been attributed to reduced intimacy with younger generations. Juxtapose this with the market driving growth for large concerts and the fierce battle for tickets. Certainly it isn't straightforward as a basic option between one or the other – “do you prefer attend a huge concert often, or remain abstinent?” – but it might be an signal of what is viewed as the more dependable satisfaction.

Unexpected Similarities

Relationships and gigs are more comparable than people often believe. Each symbolizes the initiation of a relationship, a practical trial of impressions or potential that could have built just in your mind. You arrive with some idea of how it’s likely to go, but anticipating delightfully amazed – and if it turns out satisfying or frustrating depends very much on how your vibe and hopes correspond with partners. Regularly you could wind up with someone else’s hair in your mouth, and later be waiting around for a smoke and personal space on your own. Likewise with either, stimulants and beverages can sometimes improve or detract from the event (but certainly help the worst occasions more bearable).

Achieving Equilibrium

The magic to live events and relationships hinges on finding that hard-to-find balance between familiarity and novelty, sameness and variation, challenge and comfort. Certainly it occurs infrequently – but it's the recollection of when it worked, the understanding that it can happen, that inspires us to give it another shot: to {