An Evening to Cherish: Is Live Music Really Favored More Than Sex?

Envision finding yourself with a night off. You feel rejuvenated, open to experience, and wanting to change your regular habits of relaxing at home. Your options awaits your choice! Would you opt for a) going to a gig or b) being with a partner? The answer, as frequently the case with such kinds of queries, is plainly: “It varies.” Reasonable people could understandably ask: what is the gig? With whom is the companion? Could it be going to be satisfying?

Few would pick a intense rock concert if the choice was one enchanted evening with a favorite star. Yet change either end of the comparison, and it grows more complicated. Regarding the thousands surveyed presented with this choice through a gig organization, no further clarification was offered – and the response emerged decisively and strongly supporting concerts.

Study Data Show Interesting Preferences

An international survey, questioning 40,000 people aged between 18 and 54 in 15 markets, found that concerts currently stand as the number one form of entertainment, surpassing athletic events, cinema and – absolutely – intimacy. Given the choice to only one option of enjoyment forever, a significant portion picked gigs, versus going to the cinema (17%) and athletic competitions (14%). They were also more than twice as likely to prefer attending their preferred performer in concert (70%) instead of sexual activity (30%).

You show up expecting to be pleasantly surprised – and quite often you could wind up with a stranger's hair in your mouth

Context and Considerations

Of course it's expected that a marketing research conducted for a concert promoter might conclude so overwhelmingly preferring concerts – and, with the speculative mood of a either-or question, if your top performer is, say a legendary singer, you can see why seeing him may be chosen rather than a routine situation. However this either-or decision between concerts or sex, clearly absurd as it is, is interesting to consider given the odd juncture we experience with both.

The Transformation of Gig Attendance

Over the past few years, gig-going has evolved into more than a communal experience but a intense competition. Event companies rightly note that large venue turnout has “grown significantly year-over-year”, and festivals get booked up faster than ever. Merely acquiring admissions now needs military-level planning, rapid-fire response times and bottomless pockets (or a generous credit card limit). Although you’re successful, that alone won't do to just show up and enjoy the show. There’s now an anticipation, at least among concertgoers, that you could increase your return on investment by seeing several shows (even travelling internationally), learning the set list ahead of time and memorizing the cues to follow and fan traditions developed through earlier audiences.

Many concertgoers report feeling scarred by their attendance at popular events: what felt like a scripted production of massive crowds, where some individuals turned up not knowing the routine. Those lengthy event, generating billions, was proof of the lengths to which people will go to participate in a historic occasion and watch their preferred performer sing, though the live sound seems increasingly overshadowed by the spectacle.

The Condition of Contemporary Sexuality

Sex, on the other hand – a relatively cheap and common experience – is in challenging circumstances. According to modern research, approximately 25% of people engaged sexually in an average week, while about three in ten were not engaging. In a different nation, modern figures revealed that a significant portion of people said they had not sexual activity a single time in the previous year, up from smaller percentages in previous decades. Across these regions, the trend has been linked to decreased encounters with younger generations. Juxtapose this with the industry expanding rapidly for stadium extravaganzas and the intense rivalry for passes. Of course it isn't straightforward as a simple decision between both alternatives – “do you prefer experience a popular event repeatedly, or remain abstinent?” – but it might be an signal of how people see the more consistent enjoyment.

Unexpected Similarities

Relationships and gigs are more comparable than one may assume. Both represent the commencement of a relationship, a real-world test of impressions or promise that might have amassed just in your mind. You arrive with some idea of what might happen, but hopeful of being pleasantly surprised – and if it turns out enjoyable or disappointing depends very much on whether your energy and expectations correspond with partners. Regularly you could wind up with someone else’s hair in your mouth, and later be hanging out for a cigarette and personal space on your own. Likewise with either, substances and drinks can potentially heighten or detract from the event (but absolutely assist the most unpleasant occasions simpler to handle).

Finding the Balance

The appeal to live events and relationships relies on locating that hard-to-find balance between familiarity and novelty, consistency and change, work and relaxation. Of course it happens only rarely – but it's the remembrance of successful moments, the awareness that it can happen, that motivates us to attempt once more: to {