Picture being gifted with a free evening. You're feeling energized, eager for new things, and wanting to change your usual routine of post-work slumping. Life itself awaits your choice! Could you choose a) seeing live music or b) engaging in intimacy? The answer, as typically true with such kinds of hypotheticals, is clearly: “It depends.” Mature individuals may reasonably wonder: what's the gig? With whom is the companion? Is it going to be satisfying?
Few would select a intense rock concert if the other option was one enchanted evening with a favorite star. But adjust one side of the equation, and it turns more complicated. Regarding the 40,000 people presented with this choice through a live event company, no additional context was offered – and the answer came out unambiguously and overwhelmingly preferring concerts.
Study Data Indicate Surprising Trends
An international report, interviewing 40,000 people from 18 and 54 in 15 markets, revealed that gigs have become the most popular leisure activity, beating out sports, cinema and – yes – intimacy. Given the choice to a single form of enjoyment for the rest of their lives, 39% of respondents picked live music, against watching movies (17%) and games (14%). The group was more than twice as likely to prefer watching their top musician in concert (70%) instead of intimacy (30%).
You show up hopeful of being delightfully amazed – and regularly you could wind up with someone else’s hair in your mouth
Context and Considerations
Of course it's expected that a promotional study commissioned by a concert promoter should come out so strongly in favour of concerts – and, in the freewheeling mood of a either-or question, if your favourite artist is, say Paul McCartney, it's understandable why attending his concert could prevail over a ordinary encounter. However this either-or decision between live music or sex, plainly ridiculous though it may be, is fascinating to reflect on amid the peculiar point we’re at with these two aspects.
The Change of Concert Culture
In recent years, gig-going has grown beyond a communal experience but a competitive sport. Event companies duly point out that arena crowds has “tripled annually”, and music festivals get booked up faster than ever. Merely acquiring tickets now requires detailed strategy, rapid-fire response times and bottomless pockets (or a high spending capacity). Even if you’re successful, it’s not enough to merely attend and enjoy the show. Currently there is an expectation, especially for concertgoers, that you could increase your experience quality by seeing several shows (including overseas trips), swotting up on the set list beforehand and understanding the rituals to follow and audience interactions developed through earlier audiences.
Numerous concertgoers admit to shaken by their attendance at major tours: what felt like a choreographed performance of huge audiences, to which particular fans came unfamiliar with the protocol. Those lengthy concert series, generating billions, was proof of the extents that fans will travel to experience a historic occasion and watch their preferred performer sing, although the actual music grows somewhat overshadowed by the production.
The Condition of Current Relationships
Intimacy, by contrast – a relatively cheap and common experience – faces difficult times. According to recent surveys, about a quarter of adults engaged sexually in an regular period, while about three in ten were not engaging. In a different nation, current statistics revealed that more than 25% of people admitted to avoiding intimacy even once in the last twelve months, rising from fewer people in earlier years. Across these regions, the shift has been attributed to less sexual activity among younger people. Juxtapose this with the market booming for large concerts and the cutthroat competition for passes. Certainly it isn't straightforward as a basic option between both alternatives – “could you choose experience a popular event multiple times, or stay celibate?” – but it might be an sign of how people see the more reliable satisfaction.
Surprising Parallels
Sex and live music are more comparable than people often believe. Both represent the initiation of a relationship, a real-world test of expectations or promise that might have amassed solely in your imagination. You come with a basic expectation of what might happen, but anticipating happily shocked – and how it ends up satisfying or frustrating depends very much on whether your energy and hopes align with others. Regularly you might find with another person's locks in your mouth, and afterwards be hanging out for a cigarette and some quiet time alone. Similarly for each, drugs and alcohol can either enhance or lessen the experience (but certainly help the most dire occasions more bearable).
Achieving Equilibrium
The magic to concerts and intimacy relies on finding that perfect combination between the known and the new, similarity and difference, work and relaxation. Naturally it's uncommon – but it's the recollection of when they did, the understanding that success is achievable, that drives us to try again: to {
