Tiny Desk: From Unknowns to Top Artists         

Although the Tiny Desk Concerts are fairly well known, let us briefly explain for those of you who don’t know. The Tiny Desk Concert is an NPR (National Public Radio) YouTube series. Each video is a performance by a band or solo artist in an NPR studio that looks as if the musicians decided last minute to perform in a small office. Although the name aptly fit the set, it didn’t originally derive from the scenery!

Creator of Tiny Desk, Stephen Thompson, came up with the idea after being disappointed he couldn’t hear the artist over the screaming crowd at a concert. He joked that the artist should just perform at Bob Boilen’s desk (the host of NPR’s All Songs Considered). A month later, he made it happen. The first singer was Laura Gibson, and the name Tiny Desk actually came from Boilen’s 70s psychedelic dance band, Tiny Desk Unit.

The performances continued, generally with up and coming but not yet famous, indie style musicians. After some criticism that the performance styles weren’t various enough, Thompson began intertwining rap/hip-hop, pop, and even a bit of musical theater into the mix. That’s when the series really took off. A Tiny Desk of T-Pain garnered a whopping 20.2 million views, only to be surpassed by the highly recommended performance of Anderson Paak with over 53 million views.

From the relatively unknown, we can now see the world’s biggest stars being honored by performing on Tiny Desk.  So here are some performance recommendations!

1. Obviously, Anderson Paak. We can’t recommend enough his funky, soul/hip-hop style stripped down to its acoustic bones. It is an absolute vibe.

2. Dua Lipa. Her Tiny Desk set is performed remotely from London, and aside from absolutely incredible acoustic renditions of fan favorites from her last album, we say the set designer should win a prize. The color scheme is hypnotic, and she hits every note with impressive precision and a groove that makes you want to dance.

3. Harry Styles. Though you may have avoided his music because you know he was a former One Direction member, we highly recommend you check it out. His personal music style mixes the 60s/70s folk with a modern indie feel. He’s funny, captivating, and sorry; we can’t ignore it, cute to boot!

There are too many amazing performances to go into detail about each one, but Maggie Rogers, the cast of Hades Town, Leslie Odem Jr., the list goes on and on, are up there. So whether you’re familiar or not, we say, go listen to your faves and maybe try some unknowns, because you may just find your next musical obsession.