A Night to Treasure: Is Live Music Truly Favored More Than Sex?

Envision having a open night. You feel refreshed, eager for new things, and looking to change your usual routine of post-work slumping. The world is your oyster! Would you opt for a) seeing live music or b) engaging in intimacy? The answer, as is often true with these sorts of hypotheticals, is plainly: “It varies.” Reasonable people could understandably ask: what kind of the show? Who is the other person? Will it be likely to be satisfying?

Few would pick a heavy metal lineup if the other option was a dream date with Jonathan Bailey. But adjust one side of the equation, and it grows more complicated. For the participants posed this query by a live event company, no such clarification was offered – and the response emerged clearly and overwhelmingly in favour of concerts.

Research Findings Indicate Unexpected Trends

A worldwide study, questioning a large sample aged between 18 and 54 across 15 markets, revealed that live music are now the number one pastime, surpassing sports, movies and – indeed – sex. If restricted to only one option of enjoyment for the rest of their lives, nearly four in ten selected concerts, versus film attendance (17%) and games (14%). Participants were more than twice as inclined to select watching their top musician live (70%) over sexual activity (30%).

You appear hopeful of being delightfully amazed – and regularly you’ll end up with someone else’s hair in your mouth

Perspectives and Analysis

Of course it's expected that a PR survey conducted for a gig organizer would result so strongly supporting concerts – and, in the freewheeling mood of a would-you-rather, if your favourite artist is, say a legendary singer, it's understandable why watching him might win out rather than a ordinary experience. But this binary choice between live music or sexual activity, plainly ridiculous even if it seems, is interesting to think about given the odd point we experience with these two aspects.

The Evolution of Concert Culture

Over the past few years, gig-going has grown beyond a communal experience but a intense competition. Event companies duly point out that large venue turnout has “tripled annually”, and festivals get booked up faster than ever. Just obtaining admissions now requires military-level planning, rapid-fire response times and significant funds (or a generous credit card limit). Though you succeed, it isn't sufficient to simply turn up and experience the event. Nowadays exists an expectation, particularly with music enthusiasts, that you might enhance your return on investment by attending more than once (potentially going abroad), swotting up on the song selection in advance and memorizing the cues to hit and calls-and-responses created by earlier audiences.

Many fans describe being scarred by their attendance at major tours: what felt like a scripted production of huge audiences, to which particular fans arrived unaware of the steps. Those lengthy event, generating billions, showed of the lengths to which attendees will push to experience a significant event and experience their top musician play, though the real performance seems increasingly less important than the production.

The Condition of Current Relationships

Sex, by contrast – a relatively cheap and accessible pleasure – faces challenging circumstances. Based on recent surveys, about a quarter of people had sex in an regular period, while about three in ten were sexually inactive. Elsewhere, modern figures showed that over a quarter of adults reported not having intimacy even once in the previous year, rising from lower numbers in earlier years. Across these regions, the shift has been linked to decreased encounters among younger people. Juxtapose this with the industry driving growth for large concerts and the cutthroat competition for tickets. Naturally it's more complicated as a basic option between either option – “could you choose attend a huge concert repeatedly, or remain abstinent?” – but it’s perhaps an sign of which is perceived as the more dependable pleasure.

Interesting Comparisons

Intimacy and concerts are closer aligned than you might think. They both embody the activation of a relationship, a practical trial of expectations or promise that could have built solely in your imagination. You arrive with a basic expectation of what might happen, but anticipating pleasantly surprised – and if it turns out satisfying or frustrating rests largely on whether your energy and anticipations match theirs. Frequently you could wind up with someone else’s hair in your mouth, and later be lingering for a cigarette and some quiet time on your own. And, in both cases, drugs and alcohol can potentially heighten or lessen the event (but certainly help the most unpleasant situations more bearable).

Achieving Equilibrium

The wonder to concerts and intimacy depends on discovering that hard-to-find balance between comfort and excitement, sameness and variation, work and relaxation. Certainly it's uncommon – but it's the recollection of when they did, the knowledge that success is achievable, that motivates us to try again: to {