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Imagine being gifted with a open night. You feel energized, open to experience, and hoping to change your regular habits of post-work slumping. Life itself is your oyster! Do you opt for a) going to a gig or b) being with a partner? The outcome, as is often seen with these sorts of queries, is clearly: “That depends.” Reasonable people could understandably inquire: what's the gig? With whom is the companion? Could it be likely to be satisfying?

Few would select a heavy metal lineup if the other option was a magical night with Jonathan Bailey. Yet change either end of the comparison, and it becomes more complicated. In the case of the 40,000 people presented with this choice by a gig organization, no additional context was provided – and the result emerged clearly and overwhelmingly in favour of gigs.

Research Findings Reveal Interesting Trends

A worldwide survey, polling 40,000 people ranging from 18 and 54 from 15 markets, showed that live music have become the world’s top leisure activity, surpassing athletic events, movies and – absolutely – sexual intercourse. If restricted to only one option of entertainment permanently, 39% of respondents chose gigs, against film attendance (17%) and athletic competitions (14%). The group was more than twice as inclined to select attending their preferred performer live (70%) over intimacy (30%).

You appear hopeful of being happily shocked – and quite often you might find with another person's locks in your mouth

Factors and Reflections

Certainly it’s not surprising that a marketing research commissioned by a live event company might conclude so heavily preferring live shows – and, amid the playful tone of a hypothetical choice, if your preferred musician is, say Paul McCartney, you can see why attending his concert could prevail over a ordinary encounter. Yet this binary choice between concerts or sexual activity, plainly ridiculous even if it seems, is fascinating to reflect on amid the peculiar moment we’re at with both.

The Transformation of Live Music Experience

Over the past few years, gig-going has evolved into more than a group event but a intense competition. Live organizations duly point out that stadium attendance has “increased threefold year-over-year”, and music festivals get booked up quicker than before. Simply getting tickets now needs detailed strategy, quick decision-making and deep finances (or a high spending capacity). Even if you succeed, it isn't sufficient to merely attend and experience the event. Currently there is an expectation, especially for music enthusiasts, that you might enhance your return on investment by seeing several shows (even travelling internationally), swotting up on the song selection ahead of time and memorizing the cues to hit and fan traditions created by earlier audiences.

Many fans describe being scarred by their experience at large concerts: what seemed like a orchestrated show of massive crowds, where certain attendees arrived unfamiliar with the routine. That 18-month concert series, earning massive sums, demonstrated of the extents that people will go to experience a historic occasion and see their favourite artist play, although the live sound seems increasingly overshadowed by the production.

The State of Current Relationships

Intimacy, conversely – a relatively cheap and common experience – experiences challenging circumstances. Per modern research, nearly one in four of individuals were intimate in an regular period, while just under a third were abstaining. In another major country, current statistics showed that over a quarter of individuals reported not having sex even once in the past year, up from lower numbers in earlier years. Across these regions, the shift has been associated with less sexual activity among younger people. Juxtapose this with the sector booming for large concerts and the fierce battle for admissions. Naturally it's more complicated as a basic option between either option – “would you rather experience a popular event multiple times, or avoid intimacy?” – but it's possibly an signal of what is viewed as the more consistent satisfaction.

Unexpected Similarities

Intimacy and concerts are closer aligned than one may assume. Each symbolizes the initiation of a bond, a real-world test of ideas or possibility that may have developed solely in your imagination. You arrive with some idea of the probable outcome, but anticipating pleasantly surprised – and how it ends up satisfying or frustrating relies heavily on if your enthusiasm and expectations correspond with partners. Regularly you’ll end up with a stranger's hair in your mouth, and following be hanging out for a break and a moment alone alone. And, in both cases, drugs and alcohol can either enhance or lessen the situation (but definitely make the most unpleasant situations easier to weather).

Finding the Balance

The wonder to live events and relationships relies on finding that elusive sweet spot between the known and the new, sameness and variation, challenge and comfort. Naturally it happens only rarely – but it's the recollection of successful moments, the understanding that it can happen, that inspires us to give it another shot: to {