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Envision having a night off. You feel energized, eager for new things, and wanting to change your usual routine of relaxing at home. Your options is your oyster! Would you opt for a) seeing live music or b) engaging in intimacy? The outcome, as typically seen with these types of queries, is plainly: “That depends.” Mature individuals might logically inquire: what's the concert? With whom is the other person? Will it be likely to be enjoyable?

Hardly anyone would select a intense rock concert if the choice was a dream date with a beloved celebrity. However tweak one side of the comparison, and it becomes less obvious. Regarding the participants presented with this choice by a gig organization, no additional context was given – and the response was revealed unambiguously and overwhelmingly in favour of concerts.

Research Findings Reveal Surprising Choices

An international study, interviewing a large sample from 18 and 54 across different nations, showed that gigs currently stand as the number one form of entertainment, ranking above games, movies and – yes – sexual intercourse. When limited to one type of enjoyment for the rest of their lives, a significant portion selected gigs, versus going to the cinema (17%) and sports events (14%). The group was more than twice as inclined to prefer attending their preferred performer on stage (70%) over intimacy (30%).

You show up hopeful of being happily shocked – and quite often you’ll end up with someone else’s hair in your mouth

Factors and Reflections

Certainly it makes sense that a promotional study carried out for a gig organizer should come out so overwhelmingly supporting live shows – and, with the speculative spirit of a hypothetical choice, if your top performer is, say a legendary singer, it's understandable why watching him could prevail over a ordinary situation. Yet this either-or decision between concerts or sexual activity, clearly absurd even if it seems, is fascinating to consider given the odd point we’re at with these two aspects.

The Change of Gig Attendance

Lately, live music participation has grown beyond a communal experience but a competitive sport. Major promoters rightly note that large venue turnout has “grown significantly each year”, and festivals sell out quicker than before. Just obtaining passes now requires military-level planning, quick decision-making and bottomless pockets (or a high spending capacity). Although you’re successful, that alone won't do to merely attend and enjoy the show. There’s now an anticipation, especially for concertgoers, that you can boost your experience quality by going multiple times (including overseas trips), swotting up on the set list beforehand and understanding the rituals to perform and calls-and-responses established by earlier audiences.

Many concertgoers report feeling scarred by their attendance at large concerts: what felt like a choreographed performance of thousands of people, to which certain attendees came unaware of the steps. Those lengthy event, producing huge revenue, demonstrated of the lengths to which people will go to experience a cultural moment and experience their top musician play, even if the actual music appears more and more less important than the show.

The Situation of Current Relationships

Intimacy, on the other hand – an affordable and available enjoyment – experiences dire straits. Per contemporary studies, nearly one in four of people engaged sexually in an average week, while about three in ten were sexually inactive. Elsewhere, current statistics revealed that over a quarter of individuals admitted to avoiding intimacy a single time in the last twelve months, up from fewer people in earlier years. In these areas, the change has been associated with reduced intimacy with younger generations. Contrast this with the industry driving growth for large concerts and the intense rivalry for tickets. Naturally it's more complicated as a simple decision between both alternatives – “could you choose experience a popular event multiple times, or avoid intimacy?” – but it's possibly an indication of how people see the more consistent pleasure.

Unexpected Similarities

Relationships and gigs are more similar than people often believe. Both represent the activation of a relationship, a real-world test of ideas or promise that may have developed solely in your imagination. You arrive with some idea of the probable outcome, but expecting to be delightfully amazed – and how it ends up satisfying or frustrating depends very much on whether your energy and expectations correspond with partners. Regularly you could wind up with a stranger's hair in your mouth, and following be lingering for a smoke and a moment alone on your own. Similarly for each, drugs and alcohol can sometimes improve or reduce the situation (but definitely make the worst situations easier to weather).

Finding the Balance

The magic to concerts and intimacy relies on finding that hard-to-find balance between familiarity and novelty, similarity and difference, challenge and comfort. Naturally it's uncommon – but it’s the memory of when they did, the knowledge that it’s possible, that inspires us to try again: to {