🔗 Share this article

Picture being gifted with a open night. You're feeling rejuvenated, ready for adventure, and looking to break from your typical schedule of evening scrolling. The world awaits your choice! Do you opt for a) going to a gig or b) having sex? The response, as is often seen with these types of questions, is clearly: “It depends.” Reasonable people might logically wonder: what kind of the show? Who's the other person? Could it be expected to be good?

Few would select a Limp Bizkit/Slipknot/Korn triple bill if the choice was a magical night with Jonathan Bailey. However tweak one side of the equation, and it grows more complicated. In the case of the participants presented with this choice from a gig organization, no additional context was offered – and the answer was revealed unambiguously and overwhelmingly in favour of gigs.

Survey Results Show Surprising Choices

A global study, interviewing a large sample from 18 and 54 in multiple countries, found that gigs have become the world’s top form of entertainment, beating out athletic events, movies and – absolutely – sex. If restricted to only one option of enjoyment permanently, 39% of respondents selected gigs, compared to going to the cinema (17%) and games (14%). Participants were significantly more as likely to select watching their top musician on stage (70%) over sexual activity (30%).

You show up hopeful of being happily shocked – and frequently you might find with another person's locks in your mouth

Perspectives and Analysis

Certainly it's expected that a PR survey carried out for a gig organizer might conclude so strongly in favour of live shows – and, amid the playful tone of a either-or question, if your top performer is, for example a legendary singer, you can see why seeing him may be chosen instead of a ordinary experience. Yet this two-option scenario between gigs or sexual activity, obviously silly as it is, is fascinating to consider considering the strange moment we’re at with both.

The Transformation of Gig Attendance

Lately, concert attendance has evolved into more than a group event but a competitive sport. Event companies rightly note that stadium attendance has “increased threefold each year”, and festivals are fully reserved faster than ever. Merely acquiring admissions now needs detailed strategy, rapid-fire response times and deep finances (or a substantial budget). Although you’re successful, it isn't sufficient to just show up and enjoy the show. Nowadays exists an assumption, particularly with pop fans, that you can boost your experience quality by attending more than once (even travelling internationally), studying the song selection in advance and memorizing the cues to perform and calls-and-responses created by past attendees.

Several attendees describe being affected by their participation at major tours: what felt like a scripted production of huge audiences, in which certain attendees turned up unfamiliar with the steps. Those lengthy concert series, generating billions, demonstrated of the extents that people will go to feel part of a cultural moment and experience their top musician sing, even if the real performance grows somewhat overshadowed by the show.

The State of Current Relationships

Intimacy, on the other hand – an affordable and available enjoyment – experiences difficult times. According to recent surveys, about a quarter of individuals were intimate in an regular period, while just under a third were sexually inactive. Elsewhere, modern figures showed that more than 25% of people reported not having intimacy even once in the past year, up from smaller percentages in previous decades. In these areas, the change has been attributed to decreased encounters among younger people. Compare this with the market driving growth for major events and the cutthroat competition for tickets. Naturally it isn't straightforward as a straightforward choice between both alternatives – “could you choose see a major tour often, or remain abstinent?” – but it's possibly an signal of what is viewed as the more consistent pleasure.

Unexpected Similarities

Relationships and gigs are more comparable than you might think. Both represent the activation of a bond, a real-world test of impressions or possibility that may have developed solely in your imagination. You show up with a general notion of how it’s likely to go, but expecting to be pleasantly surprised – and whether it proves satisfying or frustrating relies heavily on how your vibe and hopes correspond with partners. Regularly you could wind up with a stranger's hair in your mouth, and later be lingering for a break and personal space by yourself. Likewise with either, substances and drinks can either enhance or detract from the experience (but absolutely assist the worst experiences easier to weather).

Achieving Equilibrium

The magic to concerts and intimacy relies on finding that elusive sweet spot between familiarity and novelty, similarity and difference, effort and ease. Naturally it's uncommon – but it's the remembrance of successful moments, the understanding that it’s possible, that drives us to try again: to {