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Envision being gifted with a open night. You're feeling refreshed, ready for adventure, and wanting to break from your regular habits of evening scrolling. The world offers possibilities! Would you choose a) seeing live music or b) engaging in intimacy? The answer, as typically seen with such kinds of hypotheticals, is clearly: “That depends.” Reasonable people may reasonably ask: what is the gig? Who is the partner? Will it be going to be satisfying?

Hardly anyone would select a Limp Bizkit/Slipknot/Korn triple bill if the alternative was one enchanted evening with a beloved celebrity. However tweak one side of the equation, and it grows less obvious. Regarding the 40,000 people presented with this choice by a live event company, no further clarification was provided – and the answer came out decisively and heavily preferring live music events.

Study Data Reveal Surprising Trends

A worldwide survey, interviewing a large sample aged between 18 and 54 across 15 markets, found that live music currently stand as the world’s top leisure activity, surpassing games, cinema and – indeed – sex. When limited to one type of entertainment forever, 39% of respondents chose gigs, against watching movies (17%) and games (14%). Participants were over two times as inclined to select attending their preferred performer on stage (70%) instead of intimacy (30%).

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

Factors and Reflections

Naturally it makes sense that a promotional study carried out for a live event company might conclude so strongly preferring concerts – and, in the freewheeling spirit of a either-or question, if your favourite artist is, for example an iconic star, you can see why seeing him could prevail rather than a routine encounter. Yet this binary choice between gigs or intimacy, plainly ridiculous though it may be, is interesting to consider amid the peculiar moment we experience with each.

The Transformation of Live Music Experience

Over the past few years, live music participation has become not just a group event but a competitive sport. Major promoters appropriately highlight that large venue turnout has “grown significantly year-over-year”, and music festivals get booked up more rapidly than previously. Merely acquiring passes now needs military-level planning, instant reactions and bottomless pockets (or a high spending capacity). Even if you manage, it isn't sufficient to just show up and watch the performance. Currently there is an anticipation, especially for pop fans, that you might enhance your return on investment by seeing several shows (including overseas trips), swotting up on the set list ahead of time and understanding the rituals to follow and calls-and-responses established by past attendees.

Numerous concertgoers admit to shaken by their experience at major tours: appearing as a orchestrated show of massive crowds, in which particular fans arrived unfamiliar with the protocol. Those lengthy event, producing huge revenue, demonstrated of the degree to which people will go to experience a cultural moment and see their favourite artist play, although the live sound seems increasingly less important than the production.

The State of Current Relationships

Intimacy, by contrast – an accessible and available enjoyment – faces difficult times. According to contemporary studies, nearly one in four of individuals had sex in an typical week, while nearly 30% were not engaging. In a different nation, recent data showed that a significant portion of people said they had not intimacy at all in the past year, rising from fewer people in previous decades. In these areas, the shift has been linked to reduced intimacy among younger people. Juxtapose this with the market booming for major events and the intense rivalry for passes. Of course it’s not as simple as a basic option between both alternatives – “could you choose attend a huge concert repeatedly, or remain abstinent?” – but it's possibly an sign of which is perceived as the more reliable pleasure.

Unexpected Similarities

Intimacy and concerts are closer aligned than people often believe. Each symbolizes the commencement of a relationship, a real-world test of ideas or potential that could have built solely in your imagination. You arrive with some idea of the probable outcome, but hopeful of being happily shocked – and if it turns out enjoyable or disappointing relies heavily on whether your energy and expectations match theirs. Quite often you might find with another person's locks in your mouth, and afterwards be waiting around for a cigarette and personal space alone. Similarly for each, drugs and alcohol can sometimes improve or detract from the experience (but definitely make the most dire situations more bearable).

Finding the Balance

The wonder to concerts and intimacy hinges on discovering that elusive sweet spot between the known and the new, consistency and change, challenge and comfort. Naturally it's uncommon – but it's the remembrance of when they did, the awareness that it can happen, that inspires us to try again: to {