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Envision being gifted with a open night. You're feeling refreshed, open to experience, and looking to break from your typical schedule of relaxing at home. The world offers possibilities! Could you prefer a) seeing live music or b) having sex? The outcome, as frequently true with these types of queries, is obviously: “It depends.” Reasonable people could understandably wonder: what's the concert? Who's the other person? Could it be likely to be satisfying?

Hardly anyone would select a heavy metal lineup if the choice was one enchanted evening with a favorite star. However tweak one side of the comparison, and it becomes more complicated. In the case of the thousands surveyed asked this question by a major concert promoter, no further context was given – and the response came out unambiguously and heavily in favour of concerts.

Research Findings Show Surprising Preferences

An international study, interviewing 40,000 people aged between 18 and 54 from multiple countries, showed that gigs currently stand as the most popular leisure activity, ranking above sports, cinema and – absolutely – sex. When limited to only one option of activity permanently, nearly four in ten picked live music, compared to watching movies (17%) and sports events (14%). Participants were over two times as inclined to select watching their top musician in concert (70%) rather than sexual activity (30%).

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

Perspectives and Analysis

Certainly it's expected that a PR survey conducted for a gig organizer might conclude so overwhelmingly preferring concerts – and, amid the playful mood of a either-or question, if your top performer is, such as Paul McCartney, one can appreciate why watching him might win out over a routine situation. Yet this binary choice between gigs or sex, obviously silly as it is, is fascinating to consider amid the peculiar point we’re at with both.

The Change of Live Music Experience

Lately, live music participation has evolved into more than a communal experience but a competitive sport. Live organizations duly point out that large venue turnout has “increased threefold each year”, and music festivals get booked up quicker than before. Simply getting admissions now requires extensive preparation, quick decision-making and deep finances (or a generous credit card limit). Even if you’re successful, it’s not enough to merely attend and watch the performance. Nowadays exists an expectation, particularly with pop fans, that you can boost your return on investment by seeing several shows (even travelling internationally), learning the song selection ahead of time and understanding the rituals to follow and audience interactions established by past attendees.

Numerous attendees report feeling shaken by their attendance at major tours: what seemed like a choreographed performance of massive crowds, where some individuals came unaware of the steps. That 18-month event, generating billions, was proof of the degree to which fans will travel to participate in a historic occasion and experience their top musician play, although the real performance appears more and more secondary to the show.

The Situation of Contemporary Sexuality

Sex, conversely – a relatively cheap and accessible pleasure – experiences challenging circumstances. Per modern research, nearly one in four of individuals were intimate in an regular period, while about three in ten were sexually inactive. In another major country, current statistics showed that over a quarter of people admitted to avoiding sex even once in the previous year, rising from smaller percentages in earlier years. Across these regions, the shift has been attributed to less sexual activity among younger people. Juxtapose this with the industry booming for stadium extravaganzas and the fierce battle for admissions. Certainly it’s not as simple as a straightforward choice between one or the other – “could you choose experience a popular event repeatedly, or remain abstinent?” – but it’s perhaps an sign of which is perceived as the more dependable pleasure.

Surprising Parallels

Sex and live music are closer aligned than one may assume. Both represent the initiation of a relationship, a real-world test of ideas or promise that could have built solely in your imagination. You come with a basic expectation of what might happen, but anticipating pleasantly surprised – and how it ends up good or bad relies heavily on if your enthusiasm and anticipations correspond with partners. Regularly you could wind up with another person's locks in your mouth, and afterwards be waiting around for a cigarette and personal space on your own. Likewise with either, stimulants and beverages can potentially heighten or lessen the event (but certainly help the worst experiences more bearable).

Seeking Harmony

The wonder to live events and relationships depends on finding that perfect combination between the known and the new, similarity and difference, challenge and comfort. Certainly it occurs infrequently – but it's the recollection of when they did, the understanding that it’s possible, that drives us to attempt once more: to {