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Imagine having a free evening. You're feeling energized, eager for new things, and looking to break from your regular habits of relaxing at home. Your options is your oyster! Could you prefer a) going to a gig or b) engaging in intimacy? The outcome, as typically true with these sorts of queries, is clearly: “It depends.” Thinking adults might logically wonder: what's the concert? With whom is the other person? Could it be likely to be good?

Few would choose a Limp Bizkit/Slipknot/Korn triple bill if the alternative was a magical night with Jonathan Bailey. However tweak either end of the comparison, and it grows less clearcut. For the 40,000 people asked this question through a gig organization, no additional details was given – and the answer emerged clearly and heavily supporting gigs.

Research Findings Indicate Interesting Preferences

An international report, polling a large sample from 18 and 54 across 15 markets, found that gigs are now the world’s top pastime, surpassing sports, cinema and – yes – sex. When limited to a single form of entertainment for the rest of their lives, 39% of respondents picked gigs, compared to going to the cinema (17%) and games (14%). The group was over two times as prone to choose watching their top musician on stage (70%) rather than sex (30%).

You appear expecting to be pleasantly surprised – and regularly you could wind up with another person's locks in your mouth

Perspectives and Analysis

Naturally it makes sense that a promotional study carried out for a concert promoter would result so heavily preferring concerts – and, with the speculative spirit of a hypothetical choice, if your favourite artist is, for example a legendary singer, you can see why seeing him might win out rather than a routine encounter. Yet this binary choice between live music or sex, plainly ridiculous even if it seems, is fascinating to think about amid the peculiar point we experience with both.

The Evolution of Live Music Experience

In recent years, gig-going has evolved into more than a shared activity but a intense competition. Live organizations duly point out that large venue turnout has “grown significantly each year”, and live events get booked up more rapidly than previously. Merely acquiring admissions now demands extensive preparation, rapid-fire response times and bottomless pockets (or a high spending capacity). Even if you’re successful, that alone won't do to merely attend and experience the event. There’s now an anticipation, especially for music enthusiasts, that you might enhance your return on investment by going multiple times (including overseas trips), studying the performance lineup in advance and understanding the rituals to perform and fan traditions established by previous crowds.

Many concertgoers describe being scarred by their experience at large concerts: appearing as a scripted production of huge audiences, to which particular fans turned up unfamiliar with the routine. That 18-month tour, producing huge revenue, was proof of the lengths to which people will go to feel part of a historic occasion and see their favourite artist play, though the actual music seems increasingly overshadowed by the production.

The Condition of Contemporary Sexuality

Sexual activity, by contrast – a relatively cheap and available enjoyment – faces difficult times. Based on recent surveys, approximately 25% of adults were intimate in an regular period, while about three in ten were sexually inactive. In a different nation, modern figures showed that more than 25% of individuals admitted to avoiding sexual activity a single time in the past year, rising from fewer people in earlier years. Across these regions, the shift has been associated with less sexual activity in youth demographics. Contrast this with the market booming for major events and the cutthroat competition for tickets. Of course it’s not as simple as a simple decision between one or the other – “do you prefer experience a popular event often, or avoid intimacy?” – but it's possibly an sign of which is perceived as the more reliable satisfaction.

Surprising Parallels

Relationships and gigs are more comparable than you might think. They both embody the commencement of a connection, a real-world test of ideas or potential that may have developed only in your head. You arrive with some idea of what might happen, but anticipating delightfully amazed – and how it ends up satisfying or frustrating relies heavily on how your vibe and hopes correspond with partners. Quite often you might find with another person's locks in your mouth, and afterwards be hanging out for a break and personal space alone. Similarly for each, drugs and alcohol can potentially heighten or reduce the situation (but absolutely assist the worst situations easier to weather).

Achieving Equilibrium

The magic to both gigs and sex hinges on finding that perfect combination between the known and the new, consistency and change, challenge and comfort. Of course it's uncommon – but it's the remembrance of successful moments, the knowledge that success is achievable, that inspires us to give it another shot: to {