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Picture having a free evening. You are refreshed, open to experience, and hoping to shake up your typical schedule of post-work slumping. Your options offers possibilities! Would you choose a) going to a gig or b) being with a partner? The outcome, as is often the case with these sorts of queries, is clearly: “It depends.” Reasonable people could understandably ask: what kind of the concert? Who's the companion? Could it be going to be enjoyable?

Hardly anyone would choose a Limp Bizkit/Slipknot/Korn triple bill if the other option was a magical night with a beloved celebrity. But adjust one side of the comparison, and it grows more complicated. Regarding the 40,000 people presented with this choice by a gig organization, no additional clarification was provided – and the answer came out unambiguously and heavily preferring live music events.

Study Data Show Unexpected Trends

A worldwide report, interviewing 40,000 people ranging from 18 and 54 from multiple countries, found that live music are now the most popular form of entertainment, beating out sports, movies and – yes – sex. Given the choice to a single form of entertainment permanently, a significant portion chose gigs, against film attendance (17%) and sports events (14%). The group was over two times as prone to select seeing their favourite artist on stage (70%) instead of sexual activity (30%).

You show up expecting to be pleasantly surprised – and regularly you could wind up with someone else’s hair in your mouth

Factors and Reflections

Certainly it makes sense that a marketing research conducted for a concert promoter would result so strongly in favour of live shows – and, amid the playful tone of a either-or question, if your favourite artist is, for example Paul McCartney, you can see why attending his concert may be chosen rather than a common or garden experience. But this binary choice between live music or sex, obviously silly as it is, is interesting to think about amid the peculiar moment we’re at with both.

The Evolution of Live Music Experience

Over the past few years, live music participation has become not just a group event but a competitive sport. Live organizations appropriately highlight that stadium attendance has “grown significantly each year”, and festivals are fully reserved faster than ever. Just obtaining tickets now demands extensive preparation, quick decision-making and deep finances (or a substantial budget). Even if you manage, that alone won't do to merely attend and experience the event. Currently there is an anticipation, particularly with music enthusiasts, that you could increase your return on investment by seeing several shows (even travelling internationally), learning the performance lineup in advance and knowing your marks to follow and fan traditions developed through previous crowds.

Several concertgoers describe being affected by their experience at large concerts: what seemed like a scripted production of thousands of people, where particular fans came not knowing the routine. Those lengthy event, earning massive sums, was proof of the extents that attendees will push to experience a historic occasion and experience their top musician sing, even if the live sound seems increasingly overshadowed by the production.

The Situation of Current Relationships

Intimacy, on the other hand – an affordable and common experience – is in dire straits. Based on modern research, approximately 25% of adults were intimate in an average week, while just under a third were abstaining. In a different nation, recent data indicated that a significant portion of adults admitted to avoiding sex a single time in the past year, up from lower numbers in the past. In both territories, the change has been linked to decreased encounters with younger generations. Juxtapose this with the market expanding rapidly for major events and the intense rivalry for tickets. Naturally it isn't straightforward as a simple decision between one or the other – “do you prefer attend a huge concert repeatedly, or stay celibate?” – but it’s perhaps an indication of how people see the more consistent enjoyment.

Surprising Parallels

Relationships and gigs are more similar than one may assume. Each symbolizes the activation of a relationship, a practical trial of ideas or potential that could have built only in your head. You come with a basic expectation of how it’s likely to go, but anticipating delightfully amazed – and how it ends up good or bad rests largely on whether your energy and expectations align with others. Frequently you’ll end up with someone else’s hair in your mouth, and following be lingering for a cigarette and some quiet time on your own. Likewise with either, stimulants and beverages can potentially heighten or reduce the situation (but definitely make the worst situations more bearable).

Seeking Harmony

The wonder to concerts and intimacy depends on locating that elusive sweet spot between familiarity and novelty, consistency and change, challenge and comfort. Naturally it occurs infrequently – but it's the remembrance of when they did, the knowledge that it can happen, that inspires us to try again: to {