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Picture having a open night. You are refreshed, open to experience, and hoping to break from your usual routine of evening scrolling. Life itself is your oyster! Would you choose a) seeing live music or b) having sex? The answer, as is often seen with these types of questions, is plainly: “It depends.” Thinking adults may reasonably wonder: what is the show? Who is the partner? Will it be going to be satisfying?

Not many would select a heavy metal lineup if the alternative was a magical night with a beloved celebrity. But adjust any part of the equation, and it turns less obvious. For the thousands surveyed presented with this choice through a live event company, no such details was given – and the answer was revealed decisively and overwhelmingly preferring gigs.

Study Data Show Unexpected Preferences

An international study, interviewing thousands of participants ranging from 18 and 54 from 15 markets, revealed that concerts have become the most popular pastime, ranking above games, films and – absolutely – sexual intercourse. Given the choice to only one option of entertainment forever, a significant portion selected live music, compared to film attendance (17%) and athletic competitions (14%). They were also significantly more as likely to choose watching their top musician in concert (70%) rather than sex (30%).

You arrive hopeful of being delightfully amazed – and regularly you’ll end up with a stranger's hair in your mouth

Context and Considerations

Naturally it makes sense that a promotional study carried out for a live event company should come out so strongly supporting concerts – and, amid the playful mood of a hypothetical choice, if your top performer is, such as Paul McCartney, you can see why watching him could prevail over a ordinary experience. However this binary choice between live music or sexual activity, clearly absurd as it is, is fascinating to consider considering the strange juncture we face with these two aspects.

The Evolution of Live Music Experience

In recent years, gig-going has become not just a shared activity but a serious endeavor. Major promoters rightly note that large venue turnout has “grown significantly each year”, and live events get booked up quicker than before. Simply getting passes now needs military-level planning, rapid-fire response times and deep finances (or a generous credit card limit). Though you succeed, it isn't sufficient to simply turn up and enjoy the show. There’s now an anticipation, at least among pop fans, that you could increase your return on investment by attending more than once (potentially going abroad), learning the song selection in advance and memorizing the cues to perform and calls-and-responses created by earlier audiences.

Numerous concertgoers describe being scarred by their experience at popular events: appearing as a scripted production of massive crowds, in which certain attendees turned up unfamiliar with the steps. That 18-month tour, producing huge revenue, showed of the extents that attendees will push to feel part of a historic occasion and experience their top musician play, though the real performance appears more and more overshadowed by the production.

The Situation of Modern Intimacy

Intimacy, by contrast – a relatively cheap and accessible pleasure – experiences difficult times. Based on modern research, about a quarter of people were intimate in an average week, while just under a third were sexually inactive. In a different nation, current statistics indicated that more than 25% of adults said they had not sex at all in the past year, up from smaller percentages in earlier years. In these areas, the change has been associated with decreased encounters in youth demographics. Contrast this with the sector driving growth for large concerts and the intense rivalry for passes. Naturally it's more complicated as a basic option between both alternatives – “could you choose experience a popular event often, or remain abstinent?” – but it might be an sign of what is viewed as the more consistent pleasure.

Interesting Comparisons

Intimacy and concerts are closer aligned than people often believe. They both embody the activation of a connection, a real-world test of impressions or potential that might have amassed only in your head. You show up with some idea of the probable outcome, but expecting to be delightfully amazed – and how it ends up enjoyable or disappointing relies heavily on if your enthusiasm and anticipations match theirs. Regularly you could wind up with someone else’s hair in your mouth, and afterwards be lingering for a smoke and a moment alone by yourself. Similarly for each, stimulants and beverages can sometimes improve or lessen the experience (but certainly help the most dire occasions more bearable).

Finding the Balance

The wonder to concerts and intimacy depends on finding that elusive sweet spot between comfort and excitement, similarity and difference, effort and ease. Of course it's uncommon – but it’s the memory of when they did, the awareness that it’s possible, that motivates us to attempt once more: to {