A Night to Remember: Are Concerts Really Favored More Than Sex?
Picture having a night off. You feel rejuvenated, open to experience, and wanting to shake up your regular habits of relaxing at home. The world is your oyster! Would you prefer a) attending a concert or b) being with a partner? The answer, as typically seen with these types of queries, is obviously: “It varies.” Thinking adults may reasonably ask: what's the concert? Who's the partner? Will it be expected to be good?
Few would select a heavy metal lineup if the choice was one enchanted evening with Jonathan Bailey. But adjust any part of the scenario, and it turns less obvious. In the case of the thousands surveyed asked this question through a major concert promoter, no additional context was provided – and the result was revealed decisively and heavily supporting gigs.
Research Findings Indicate Surprising Trends
A worldwide study, interviewing thousands of participants ranging from 18 and 54 from different nations, showed that concerts have become the number one leisure activity, beating out sports, cinema and – absolutely – sex. Given the choice to a single form of enjoyment permanently, 39% of respondents picked concerts, against going to the cinema (17%) and athletic competitions (14%). The group was more than twice as prone to prefer attending their preferred performer on stage (70%) over sex (30%).
You appear hopeful of being pleasantly surprised – and regularly you might find with a stranger's hair in your mouth
Context and Considerations
Of course it’s not surprising that a PR survey commissioned by a concert promoter might conclude so strongly preferring concerts – and, amid the playful tone of a would-you-rather, if your preferred musician is, such as a legendary singer, it's understandable why watching him might win out instead of a routine encounter. However this two-option scenario between gigs or sex, plainly ridiculous as it is, is interesting to think about considering the strange moment we’re at with both.
The Evolution of Live Music Experience
In recent years, concert attendance has evolved into more than a group event but a intense competition. Major promoters appropriately highlight that large venue turnout has “increased threefold each year”, and music festivals get booked up quicker than before. Just obtaining admissions now requires military-level planning, instant reactions and bottomless pockets (or a generous credit card limit). Although you’re successful, that alone won't do to simply turn up and experience the event. Currently there is an anticipation, particularly with pop fans, that you could increase your enjoyment value by attending more than once (including overseas trips), studying the set list ahead of time and memorizing the cues to hit and calls-and-responses created by earlier audiences.
Several attendees describe being affected by their attendance at large concerts: what seemed like a choreographed performance of thousands of people, in which certain attendees arrived unfamiliar with the steps. Those lengthy tour, earning massive sums, demonstrated of the extents that fans will travel to feel part of a cultural moment and experience their top musician perform, although the live sound grows somewhat secondary to the production.
The Situation of Current Relationships
Sexual activity, by contrast – an affordable and accessible pleasure – faces dire straits. Per modern research, nearly one in four of people had sex in an typical week, while about three in ten were sexually inactive. In a different nation, current statistics showed that over a quarter of individuals said they had not intimacy at all in the past year, increasing from smaller percentages in previous decades. In these areas, the shift has been attributed to less sexual activity among younger people. Contrast this with the market booming for large concerts and the cutthroat competition for passes. Certainly it isn't straightforward as a straightforward choice between one or the other – “would you rather experience a popular event multiple times, or avoid intimacy?” – but it’s perhaps an sign of how people see the more dependable pleasure.
Surprising Parallels
Sex and live music are more comparable than you might think. Both represent the commencement of a relationship, a actual experience of ideas or possibility that may have developed solely in your imagination. You arrive with a basic expectation of how it’s likely to go, but expecting to be pleasantly surprised – and if it turns out good or bad depends very much on whether your energy and expectations align with others. Quite often you might find with someone else’s hair in your mouth, and later be lingering for a smoke and a moment alone by yourself. Likewise with either, drugs and alcohol can either enhance or lessen the situation (but definitely make the worst occasions easier to weather).
Finding the Balance
The wonder to concerts and intimacy hinges on finding that elusive sweet spot between familiarity and novelty, consistency and change, challenge and comfort. Of course it happens only rarely – but it’s the memory of when they did, the awareness that it can happen, that inspires us to try again: to {
