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Imagine being gifted with a free evening. You are energized, eager for new things, and hoping to break from your regular habits of relaxing at home. Your options awaits your choice! Could you choose a) attending a concert or b) engaging in intimacy? The response, as typically the case with these sorts of questions, is obviously: “That depends.” Thinking adults may reasonably wonder: what's the concert? Who's the other person? Is it likely to be satisfying?

Few would pick a heavy metal lineup if the other option was one enchanted evening with Jonathan Bailey. Yet change one side of the scenario, and it grows less clearcut. In the case of the thousands surveyed presented with this choice from a major concert promoter, no additional context was given – and the answer came out decisively and heavily in favour of gigs.

Research Findings Show Unexpected Trends

An international study, interviewing 40,000 people from 18 and 54 across multiple countries, revealed that concerts currently stand as the world’s top leisure activity, beating out games, cinema and – yes – intimacy. When limited to only one option of activity for the rest of their lives, 39% of respondents picked gigs, compared to film attendance (17%) and sports events (14%). They were also over two times as likely to select watching their top musician live (70%) rather than sex (30%).

You appear expecting to be pleasantly surprised – and regularly you might find with a stranger's hair in your mouth

Context and Considerations

Of course it's expected that a PR survey carried out for a concert promoter should come out so overwhelmingly in favour of gigs – and, with the speculative spirit of a would-you-rather, if your favourite artist is, say Paul McCartney, one can appreciate why watching him may be chosen rather than a routine encounter. However this either-or decision between concerts or sex, obviously silly as it is, is noteworthy to reflect on given the odd point we’re at with these two aspects.

The Evolution of Gig Attendance

In recent years, gig-going has grown beyond a communal experience but a intense competition. Major promoters appropriately highlight that stadium attendance has “tripled annually”, and music festivals sell out more rapidly than previously. Merely acquiring admissions now demands military-level planning, instant reactions and significant funds (or a generous credit card limit). Although you manage, that alone won't do to simply turn up and experience the event. There’s now an anticipation, particularly with pop fans, that you could increase your experience quality by going multiple times (including overseas trips), studying the song selection ahead of time and knowing your marks to follow and audience interactions created by earlier audiences.

Many attendees admit to shaken by their experience at popular events: appearing as a orchestrated show of thousands of people, to which some individuals arrived not knowing the protocol. The extended tour, earning massive sums, was proof of the lengths to which people will go to experience a significant event and watch their preferred performer sing, though the live sound appears more and more less important than the show.

The State of Contemporary Sexuality

Intimacy, conversely – an accessible and common experience – is in dire straits. Based on recent surveys, approximately 25% of people were intimate in an regular period, while about three in ten were sexually inactive. In a different nation, recent data revealed that more than 25% of people said they had not sexual activity at all in the previous year, increasing from lower numbers in previous decades. In these areas, the trend has been linked to reduced intimacy with younger generations. Compare this with the market booming for large concerts and the intense rivalry for tickets. Naturally it’s not as simple as a basic option between both alternatives – “could you choose see a major tour multiple times, or remain abstinent?” – but it's possibly an signal of which is perceived as the more consistent enjoyment.

Unexpected Similarities

Relationships and gigs are more comparable than you might think. Each symbolizes the initiation of a bond, a practical trial of ideas or possibility that may have developed only in your head. You come with some idea of what might happen, but anticipating pleasantly surprised – and whether it proves enjoyable or disappointing depends very much on how your vibe and anticipations align with others. Regularly you might find with someone else’s hair in your mouth, and later be lingering for a smoke and personal space alone. Likewise with either, drugs and alcohol can potentially heighten or detract from the event (but definitely make the most dire occasions more bearable).

Finding the Balance

The wonder to live events and relationships depends on finding that hard-to-find balance between the known and the new, similarity and difference, work and relaxation. Of course it happens only rarely – but it’s the memory of successful moments, the knowledge that success is achievable, that drives us to give it another shot: to {