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Picture being gifted with a night off. You're feeling rejuvenated, open to experience, and wanting to shake up your regular habits of post-work slumping. Life itself offers possibilities! Would you choose a) attending a concert or b) being with a partner? The response, as is often seen with these sorts of questions, is plainly: “That depends.” Reasonable people might logically ask: what kind of the concert? Who's the companion? Could it be going to be enjoyable?

Hardly anyone would pick a heavy metal lineup if the alternative was a magical night with a favorite star. However tweak either end of the equation, and it grows less obvious. For the participants presented with this choice through a live event company, no such clarification was given – and the response was revealed clearly and strongly in favour of gigs.

Study Data Reveal Surprising Preferences

An international survey, polling thousands of participants aged between 18 and 54 from multiple countries, found that gigs have become the number one pastime, beating out athletic events, movies and – absolutely – sexual intercourse. If restricted to a single form of activity forever, a significant portion selected concerts, compared to film attendance (17%) and games (14%). Participants were more than twice as inclined to prefer seeing their favourite artist in concert (70%) rather than intimacy (30%).

You show up expecting to be delightfully amazed – and frequently you might find with someone else’s hair in your mouth

Factors and Reflections

Of course it’s not surprising that a promotional study carried out for a concert promoter should come out so strongly supporting live shows – and, in the freewheeling tone of a would-you-rather, if your favourite artist is, say Paul McCartney, you can see why attending his concert could prevail instead of a common or garden experience. Yet this binary choice between gigs or intimacy, clearly absurd as it is, is interesting to reflect on given the odd moment we experience with each.

The Evolution of Live Music Experience

In recent years, concert attendance has grown beyond a shared activity but a intense competition. Event companies appropriately highlight that arena crowds has “grown significantly each year”, and festivals sell out more rapidly than previously. Merely acquiring admissions now needs detailed strategy, rapid-fire response times and significant funds (or a generous credit card limit). Though you manage, it isn't sufficient to simply turn up and watch the performance. Currently there is an expectation, at least among pop fans, that you might enhance your enjoyment value by going multiple times (even travelling internationally), learning the performance lineup ahead of time and memorizing the cues to hit and calls-and-responses created by previous crowds.

Several concertgoers report feeling scarred by their experience at popular events: what felt like a scripted production of massive crowds, in which certain attendees came not knowing the steps. Those lengthy event, producing huge revenue, showed of the degree to which fans will travel to experience a cultural moment and watch their preferred performer perform, even if the live sound appears more and more less important than the show.

The Condition of Modern Intimacy

Intimacy, by contrast – an affordable and accessible pleasure – is in difficult times. Per modern research, about a quarter of individuals engaged sexually in an typical week, while about three in ten were not engaging. In a different nation, modern figures showed that a significant portion of individuals admitted to avoiding sexual activity at all in the previous year, up from lower numbers in the past. Across these regions, the shift has been associated with reduced intimacy with younger generations. Compare this with the market booming for stadium extravaganzas and the cutthroat competition for passes. Of course it isn't straightforward as a straightforward choice between both alternatives – “could you choose experience a popular event often, or stay celibate?” – but it’s perhaps an sign of what is viewed as the more reliable pleasure.

Surprising Parallels

Relationships and gigs are more comparable than you might think. They both embody the commencement of a relationship, a practical trial of impressions or promise that might have amassed solely in your imagination. You arrive with a basic expectation of what might happen, but anticipating delightfully amazed – and how it ends up satisfying or frustrating relies heavily on if your enthusiasm and anticipations correspond with partners. Frequently you could wind up with another person's locks in your mouth, and later be lingering for a smoke and a moment alone on your own. And, in both cases, stimulants and beverages can potentially heighten or lessen the situation (but absolutely assist the most unpleasant situations more bearable).

Finding the Balance

The wonder to live events and relationships hinges on finding that elusive sweet spot between familiarity and novelty, similarity and difference, challenge and comfort. Of course it happens only rarely – but it's the remembrance of successful moments, the understanding that it’s possible, that inspires us to attempt once more: to {