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Envision finding yourself with a night off. You are rejuvenated, ready for adventure, and hoping to break from your typical schedule of evening scrolling. Life itself awaits your choice! Do you choose a) seeing live music or b) being with a partner? The outcome, as is often seen with such kinds of hypotheticals, is clearly: “That depends.” Mature individuals may reasonably ask: what is the concert? Who's the partner? Is it going to be good?

Hardly anyone would pick a heavy metal lineup if the other option was a dream date with a beloved celebrity. However tweak either end of the comparison, and it turns more complicated. For the thousands surveyed presented with this choice from a live event company, no further context was offered – and the response came out unambiguously and strongly preferring live music events.

Research Findings Show Unexpected Choices

A global report, interviewing thousands of participants ranging from 18 and 54 across multiple countries, found that live music are now the number one pastime, beating out games, cinema and – absolutely – intimacy. When limited to a single form of entertainment for the rest of their lives, a significant portion chose live music, against watching movies (17%) and sports events (14%). The group was significantly more as likely to select watching their top musician in concert (70%) rather than sexual activity (30%).

You appear expecting to be happily shocked – and quite often you’ll end up with another person's locks in your mouth

Factors and Reflections

Of course it makes sense that a promotional study carried out for a gig organizer would result so overwhelmingly in favour of live shows – and, with the speculative spirit of a hypothetical choice, if your top performer is, for example a legendary singer, it's understandable why attending his concert could prevail over a ordinary experience. But this either-or decision between gigs or intimacy, clearly absurd even if it seems, is fascinating to think about given the odd juncture we’re at with both.

The Transformation of Concert Culture

Over the past few years, concert attendance has become not just a group event but a intense competition. Event companies duly point out that arena crowds has “increased threefold annually”, and festivals are fully reserved faster than ever. Simply getting admissions now requires detailed strategy, rapid-fire response times and deep finances (or a substantial budget). Even if you manage, that alone won't do to just show up and experience the event. Nowadays exists an assumption, at least among music enthusiasts, that you could increase your return on investment by seeing several shows (including overseas trips), swotting up on the performance lineup in advance and knowing your marks to perform and calls-and-responses established by past attendees.

Numerous concertgoers report feeling scarred by their participation at popular events: what felt like a scripted production of thousands of people, in which some individuals turned up unfamiliar with the protocol. The extended event, generating billions, was proof of the degree to which fans will travel to experience a significant event and see their favourite artist perform, even if the real performance appears more and more secondary to the show.

The State of Modern Intimacy

Intimacy, on the other hand – an affordable and accessible pleasure – experiences challenging circumstances. According to modern research, nearly one in four of individuals were intimate in an average week, while just under a third were sexually inactive. In a different nation, current statistics revealed that a significant portion of people reported not having sex at all in the past year, rising from lower numbers in earlier years. In these areas, the shift has been linked to decreased encounters among younger people. Juxtapose this with the sector driving growth for large concerts and the cutthroat competition for tickets. Certainly it’s not as simple as a straightforward choice between one or the other – “would you rather experience a popular event multiple times, or remain abstinent?” – but it’s perhaps an indication of which is perceived as the more reliable pleasure.

Surprising Parallels

Intimacy and concerts are more comparable than you might think. They both embody the initiation of a relationship, a real-world test of expectations or promise that could have built just in your mind. You arrive with a general notion of what might happen, but expecting to be pleasantly surprised – and how it ends up enjoyable or disappointing depends very much on how your vibe and anticipations correspond with partners. Frequently you could wind up with a stranger's hair in your mouth, and later be waiting around for a break and personal space alone. Likewise with either, stimulants and beverages can potentially heighten or reduce the situation (but definitely make the most dire situations simpler to handle).

Finding the Balance

The magic to both gigs and sex hinges on locating that perfect combination between familiarity and novelty, consistency and change, challenge and comfort. Certainly it happens only rarely – but it's the remembrance of when it worked, the awareness that it can happen, that motivates us to give it another shot: to {