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Picture finding yourself with a free evening. You feel refreshed, open to experience, and looking to change your usual routine of relaxing at home. Your options awaits your choice! Would you choose a) seeing live music or b) being with a partner? The answer, as typically seen with such kinds of questions, is plainly: “That depends.” Reasonable people may reasonably ask: what's the gig? Who is the other person? Is it going to be enjoyable?

Not many would select a Limp Bizkit/Slipknot/Korn triple bill if the choice was a dream date with Jonathan Bailey. Yet change any part of the equation, and it turns less obvious. For the 40,000 people posed this query from a live event company, no additional context was provided – and the response came out clearly and strongly in favour of concerts.

Study Data Indicate Interesting Trends

A global study, interviewing thousands of participants from 18 and 54 across 15 markets, showed that gigs currently stand as the most popular leisure activity, ranking above games, films and – indeed – sex. When limited to a single form of entertainment forever, a significant portion selected concerts, versus film attendance (17%) and sports events (14%). Participants were significantly more as inclined to prefer watching their top musician live (70%) over sexual activity (30%).

You arrive hopeful of being delightfully amazed – and regularly you’ll end up with a stranger's hair in your mouth

Context and Considerations

Naturally it’s not surprising that a promotional study commissioned by a gig organizer should come out so overwhelmingly supporting live shows – and, in the freewheeling tone of a either-or question, if your preferred musician is, for example Paul McCartney, you can see why attending his concert could prevail rather than a common or garden experience. However this binary choice between live music or intimacy, clearly absurd as it is, is noteworthy to think about considering the strange point we’re at with each.

The Transformation of Gig Attendance

In recent years, live music participation has become not just a shared activity but a serious endeavor. Event companies appropriately highlight that arena crowds has “increased threefold each year”, and festivals get booked up quicker than before. Simply getting passes now needs military-level planning, quick decision-making and deep finances (or a high spending capacity). Though you manage, that alone won't do to just show up and experience the event. There’s now an anticipation, especially for music enthusiasts, that you might enhance your experience quality by attending more than once (even travelling internationally), studying the set list ahead of time and knowing your marks to follow and fan traditions established by previous crowds.

Many concertgoers describe being scarred by their attendance at popular events: what seemed like a orchestrated show of thousands of people, to which some individuals arrived not knowing the steps. The extended tour, earning massive sums, showed of the lengths to which people will go to participate in a cultural moment and watch their preferred performer sing, though the actual music grows somewhat less important than the spectacle.

The State of Current Relationships

Sexual activity, conversely – a relatively cheap and common experience – experiences dire straits. According to recent surveys, nearly one in four of people engaged sexually in an average week, while just under a third were not engaging. Elsewhere, modern figures showed that more than 25% of individuals said they had not sex a single time in the last twelve months, rising from smaller percentages in earlier years. Across these regions, the change has been associated with reduced intimacy among younger people. Compare this with the sector driving growth for major events and the cutthroat competition for passes. Naturally it isn't straightforward as a basic option between both alternatives – “would you rather experience a popular event multiple times, or avoid intimacy?” – but it’s perhaps an sign of which is perceived as the more reliable enjoyment.

Unexpected Similarities

Intimacy and concerts are more similar than one may assume. Both represent the activation of a bond, a practical trial of ideas or possibility that might have amassed just in your mind. You arrive with some idea of how it’s likely to go, but hopeful of being pleasantly surprised – and if it turns out satisfying or frustrating 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 lingering for a cigarette and some quiet time by yourself. Similarly for each, stimulants and beverages can sometimes improve or reduce the situation (but definitely make the most dire experiences more bearable).

Seeking Harmony

The appeal to concerts and intimacy hinges on discovering that hard-to-find balance between the known and the new, similarity and difference, challenge and comfort. Certainly it happens only rarely – but it's the remembrance of when they did, the awareness that it can happen, that motivates us to give it another shot: to {