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Picture being gifted with a night off. You feel rejuvenated, open to experience, and wanting to change your regular habits of evening scrolling. Life itself is your oyster! Could you opt for a) attending a concert or b) having sex? The answer, as is often true with such kinds of queries, is plainly: “It depends.” Thinking adults may reasonably inquire: what is the concert? Who is the other person? Is it expected to be enjoyable?

Not many would pick a heavy metal lineup if the alternative was one enchanted evening with Jonathan Bailey. However tweak either end of the comparison, and it grows less clearcut. For the participants presented with this choice by a major concert promoter, no further context was offered – and the result came out unambiguously and heavily in favour of concerts.

Survey Results Indicate Surprising Trends

An international survey, questioning 40,000 people from 18 and 54 from 15 markets, revealed that gigs are now the world’s top leisure activity, surpassing athletic events, cinema and – absolutely – sex. When limited to a single form of activity forever, 39% of respondents picked concerts, against watching movies (17%) and sports events (14%). They were also significantly more as inclined to choose attending their preferred performer live (70%) instead of sex (30%).

You appear expecting to be pleasantly surprised – and frequently you’ll end up with another person's locks in your mouth

Perspectives and Analysis

Certainly it makes sense that a promotional study commissioned by a gig organizer might conclude so heavily preferring concerts – and, with the speculative mood of a hypothetical choice, if your top performer is, say a legendary singer, it's understandable why seeing him may be chosen over a common or garden situation. But this either-or decision between concerts or intimacy, plainly ridiculous though it may be, is interesting to reflect on considering the strange juncture we’re at with both.

The Evolution of Live Music Experience

Lately, concert attendance has become not just a shared activity but a competitive sport. Event companies rightly note that arena crowds has “increased threefold year-over-year”, and festivals get booked up faster than ever. Just obtaining admissions now needs extensive preparation, quick decision-making and bottomless pockets (or a high spending capacity). Though you manage, that alone won't do to merely attend and experience the event. There’s now an anticipation, at least among music enthusiasts, that you might enhance your enjoyment value by going multiple times (even travelling internationally), swotting up on the song selection in advance and knowing your marks to perform and audience interactions developed through previous crowds.

Many fans report feeling scarred by their attendance at popular events: what seemed like a choreographed performance of thousands of people, to which particular fans arrived not knowing the routine. Those lengthy tour, generating billions, demonstrated of the degree to which attendees will push to feel part of a significant event and see their favourite artist sing, even if the live sound grows somewhat less important than the show.

The Condition of Current Relationships

Intimacy, on the other hand – an affordable and available enjoyment – is in difficult times. Per recent surveys, nearly one in four of individuals engaged sexually in an regular period, while about three in ten were abstaining. In another major country, current statistics revealed that more than 25% of people reported not having intimacy at all in the previous year, rising from lower numbers in the past. In these areas, the trend has been attributed to less sexual activity among younger people. Compare this with the sector driving growth for large concerts and the fierce battle for tickets. Of course it’s not as simple as a straightforward choice between one or the other – “could you choose experience a popular event repeatedly, or avoid intimacy?” – but it's possibly an sign of which is perceived as the more consistent enjoyment.

Surprising Parallels

Sex and live music are closer aligned than people often believe. They both embody the activation of a bond, a actual experience of impressions or promise that might have amassed just in your mind. You show up with a general notion of the probable outcome, but expecting to be delightfully amazed – and if it turns out good or bad depends very much on if your enthusiasm and expectations correspond with partners. Regularly you might find with another person's locks in your mouth, and following be lingering for a smoke and personal space on your own. Similarly for each, stimulants and beverages can potentially heighten or detract from the situation (but absolutely assist the most unpleasant experiences easier to weather).

Achieving Equilibrium

The wonder to concerts and intimacy depends on finding that perfect combination between the known and the new, consistency and change, effort and ease. Of course it's uncommon – but it's the remembrance of successful moments, the understanding that it’s possible, that motivates us to attempt once more: to {