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Imagine being gifted with a night off. You're feeling rejuvenated, ready for adventure, and looking to change your typical schedule of post-work slumping. Life itself is your oyster! Would you choose a) attending a concert or b) being with a partner? The outcome, as frequently seen with these sorts of hypotheticals, is clearly: “That depends.” Reasonable people might logically wonder: what kind of the show? Who's the companion? Could it be going to be good?

Few would pick a heavy metal lineup if the other option was a dream date with a beloved celebrity. Yet change one side of the equation, and it becomes more complicated. For the 40,000 people presented with this choice from a major concert promoter, no additional clarification was given – and the response was revealed unambiguously and overwhelmingly supporting gigs.

Survey Results Reveal Interesting Choices

An international survey, polling 40,000 people ranging from 18 and 54 in different nations, revealed that gigs are now the number one form of entertainment, beating out sports, cinema and – yes – sex. Given the choice to a single form of enjoyment for the rest of their lives, nearly four in ten picked live music, versus going to the cinema (17%) and athletic competitions (14%). The group was over two times as prone to select attending their preferred performer in concert (70%) rather than sexual activity (30%).

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

Factors and Reflections

Naturally it makes sense that a marketing research commissioned by a concert promoter might conclude so overwhelmingly supporting gigs – and, with the speculative mood of a would-you-rather, if your favourite artist is, for example Paul McCartney, one can appreciate why seeing him may be chosen rather than a routine situation. Yet this binary choice between gigs or intimacy, plainly ridiculous though it may be, is interesting to consider considering the strange moment we experience with these two aspects.

The Evolution of Gig Attendance

In recent years, concert attendance has become not just a shared activity but a intense competition. Major promoters duly point out that large venue turnout has “increased threefold annually”, and festivals are fully reserved more rapidly than previously. Merely acquiring admissions now demands military-level planning, instant reactions and deep finances (or a high spending capacity). Although you succeed, it isn't sufficient to just show up and experience the event. Currently there is an expectation, at least among music enthusiasts, that you might enhance your experience quality by attending more than once (including overseas trips), swotting up on the song selection in advance and memorizing the cues to follow and fan traditions established by earlier audiences.

Numerous fans describe being scarred by their attendance at popular events: what seemed like a orchestrated show of huge audiences, in which particular fans arrived unaware of the steps. Those lengthy concert series, generating billions, showed of the lengths to which people will go to participate in a historic occasion and watch their preferred performer play, even if the live sound appears more and more secondary to the spectacle.

The Condition of Modern Intimacy

Sexual activity, conversely – an accessible and common experience – experiences challenging circumstances. Based on recent surveys, approximately 25% of people were intimate in an regular period, while about three in ten were abstaining. Elsewhere, recent data indicated that a significant portion of adults said they had not sex at all in the past year, up from lower numbers in previous decades. In both territories, the shift has been linked to less sexual activity with younger generations. Contrast this with the industry booming for stadium extravaganzas and the cutthroat competition for admissions. Of course it's more complicated as a straightforward choice between one or the other – “do you prefer see a major tour often, or stay celibate?” – but it’s perhaps an sign of what is viewed as the more reliable enjoyment.

Unexpected Similarities

Sex and live music are more comparable than one may assume. Each symbolizes the initiation of a bond, a practical trial of impressions or promise that might have amassed just in your mind. You show up with a general notion of how it’s likely to go, but hopeful of being delightfully amazed – and whether it proves satisfying or frustrating depends very much on if your enthusiasm and hopes match theirs. Quite often you’ll end up with a stranger's hair in your mouth, and later be waiting around for a cigarette and some quiet time alone. Likewise with either, drugs and alcohol can potentially heighten or lessen the situation (but definitely make the most unpleasant situations easier to weather).

Achieving Equilibrium

The magic to concerts and intimacy depends on finding that perfect combination between familiarity and novelty, sameness and variation, challenge and comfort. Naturally it occurs infrequently – but it's the remembrance of successful moments, the knowledge that success is achievable, that drives us to try again: to {