🔗 Share this article

Envision having a open night. You feel energized, open to experience, and wanting to shake up your regular habits of relaxing at home. Life itself awaits your choice! Do you choose a) seeing live music or b) having sex? The response, as is often seen with such kinds of hypotheticals, is plainly: “It varies.” Reasonable people might logically ask: what kind of the concert? Who is the partner? Will it be going to be enjoyable?

Not many would choose a Limp Bizkit/Slipknot/Korn triple bill if the other option was one enchanted evening with a favorite star. But adjust one side of the comparison, and it grows more complicated. In the case of the participants presented with this choice through a gig organization, no additional context was offered – and the response emerged clearly and overwhelmingly in favour of concerts.

Study Data Show Interesting Preferences

A worldwide study, polling 40,000 people ranging from 18 and 54 across 15 markets, showed that live music are now the number one form of entertainment, ranking above athletic events, films and – yes – sex. When limited to a single form of entertainment forever, a significant portion selected gigs, compared to going to the cinema (17%) and games (14%). They were also over two times as inclined to choose attending their preferred performer live (70%) rather than intimacy (30%).

You appear anticipating delightfully amazed – and quite often you’ll end up with someone else’s hair in your mouth

Context and Considerations

Certainly it makes sense that a marketing research conducted for a concert promoter should come out so overwhelmingly in favour of gigs – and, amid the playful spirit of a hypothetical choice, if your favourite artist is, for example Paul McCartney, you can see why attending his concert could prevail rather than a routine experience. Yet this binary choice between concerts or sexual activity, clearly absurd even if it seems, is fascinating to think about given the odd juncture we face with both.

The Evolution of Concert Culture

In recent years, concert attendance has grown beyond a communal experience but a serious endeavor. Live organizations rightly note that arena crowds has “tripled annually”, and live events are fully reserved faster than ever. Simply getting tickets now demands extensive preparation, quick decision-making and deep finances (or a generous credit card limit). Although you succeed, it’s not enough to simply turn up and watch the performance. Nowadays exists an expectation, particularly with music enthusiasts, that you could increase your experience quality by going multiple times (potentially going abroad), swotting up on the set list in advance and understanding the rituals to perform and audience interactions developed through past attendees.

Many concertgoers describe being affected by their attendance at major tours: what felt like a choreographed performance of massive crowds, in which particular fans came unaware of the protocol. That 18-month concert series, generating billions, demonstrated of the lengths to which fans will travel to feel part of a historic occasion and watch their preferred performer perform, even if the live sound seems increasingly secondary to the spectacle.

The Condition of Modern Intimacy

Sexual activity, by contrast – an accessible and common experience – is in challenging circumstances. Based on contemporary studies, about a quarter of individuals had sex in an regular period, while nearly 30% were sexually inactive. In a different nation, recent data indicated that a significant portion of individuals said they had not intimacy at all in the past year, increasing from smaller percentages in the past. Across these regions, the trend has been associated with reduced intimacy in youth demographics. Juxtapose this with the market booming for stadium extravaganzas and the cutthroat competition for passes. Naturally it’s not as simple as a basic option between one or the other – “could you choose experience a popular event repeatedly, or avoid intimacy?” – but it’s perhaps an sign of which is perceived as the more dependable pleasure.

Interesting Comparisons

Intimacy and concerts are closer aligned than people often believe. Each symbolizes the initiation of a connection, a real-world test of ideas or potential that might have amassed just in your mind. You come with a basic expectation of the probable outcome, but anticipating happily shocked – and if it turns out good or bad depends very much on how your vibe and expectations match theirs. Regularly you might find with a stranger's hair in your mouth, and following be lingering for a smoke and some quiet time by yourself. And, in both cases, stimulants and beverages can either enhance or reduce the experience (but certainly help the most unpleasant experiences more bearable).

Seeking Harmony

The wonder to concerts and intimacy hinges on finding that perfect combination between the known and the new, sameness and variation, work and relaxation. Certainly it's uncommon – but it's the remembrance of when they did, the understanding that it can happen, that motivates us to attempt once more: to {