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Imagine finding yourself with a free evening. You are rejuvenated, open to experience, and wanting to change your regular habits of post-work slumping. Your options is your oyster! Would you choose a) attending a concert or b) having sex? The response, as frequently true with these sorts of hypotheticals, is plainly: “It varies.” Reasonable people could understandably ask: what kind of the concert? With whom is the companion? Could it be likely to be good?

Hardly anyone would pick a heavy metal lineup if the choice was one enchanted evening with a favorite star. But adjust one side of the equation, and it becomes less obvious. For the 40,000 people asked this question from a gig organization, no such details was offered – and the response emerged decisively and heavily supporting live music events.

Study Data Reveal Surprising Trends

A worldwide study, polling a large sample ranging from 18 and 54 across different nations, found that live music have become the number one pastime, beating out games, films and – indeed – sexual intercourse. When limited to a single form of enjoyment for the rest of their lives, a significant portion selected live music, against going to the cinema (17%) and games (14%). They were also over two times as prone to choose watching their top musician in concert (70%) rather than sexual activity (30%).

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

Perspectives and Analysis

Naturally it makes sense that a PR survey conducted for a concert promoter would result so strongly preferring concerts – and, with the speculative tone of a hypothetical choice, if your favourite artist is, for example an iconic star, you can see why watching him could prevail over a ordinary experience. Yet this two-option scenario between live music or sex, obviously silly as it is, is noteworthy to consider amid the peculiar moment we experience with these two aspects.

The Change of Live Music Experience

Over the past few years, live music participation has evolved into more than a shared activity but a competitive sport. Major promoters duly point out that stadium attendance has “tripled annually”, and live events are fully reserved faster than ever. Just obtaining tickets now requires detailed strategy, rapid-fire response times and significant funds (or a substantial budget). Although you manage, it isn't sufficient to simply turn up and watch the performance. There’s now an expectation, especially for concertgoers, that you can boost your enjoyment value by attending more than once (even travelling internationally), learning the song selection in advance and memorizing the cues to hit and calls-and-responses developed through earlier audiences.

Several concertgoers describe being shaken by their experience at large concerts: appearing as a choreographed performance of thousands of people, in which some individuals turned up unfamiliar with the routine. That 18-month tour, generating billions, demonstrated of the lengths to which attendees will push to participate in a significant event and experience their top musician sing, although the live sound seems increasingly less important than the show.

The Situation of Current Relationships

Sex, on the other hand – a relatively cheap and common experience – is in dire straits. According to modern research, approximately 25% of individuals had sex in an typical week, while just under a third were not engaging. In another major country, recent data indicated that over a quarter of adults admitted to avoiding sex a single time in the previous year, up from fewer people in earlier years. In these areas, the trend has been linked to less sexual activity among younger people. Juxtapose this with the industry expanding rapidly for stadium extravaganzas and the fierce battle for tickets. Certainly it’s not as simple as a basic option between both alternatives – “would you rather see a major tour often, or avoid intimacy?” – but it's possibly an indication of which is perceived as the more dependable satisfaction.

Surprising Parallels

Relationships and gigs are closer aligned than people often believe. Both represent the activation of a relationship, a practical trial of impressions or potential that might have amassed just in your mind. You arrive with some idea of the probable outcome, but expecting to be happily shocked – and if it turns out good or bad depends very much on if your enthusiasm and expectations correspond with partners. Regularly you could wind up with someone else’s hair in your mouth, and afterwards be lingering for a break and personal space by yourself. Similarly for each, substances and drinks can either enhance or detract from the situation (but certainly help the most dire experiences easier to weather).

Achieving Equilibrium

The appeal to live events and relationships relies on discovering that hard-to-find balance between comfort and excitement, sameness and variation, effort and ease. Certainly it's uncommon – but it's the remembrance of when they did, the understanding that success is achievable, that motivates us to give it another shot: to {