Tiny Desk is NPR’s scrappy little musical engine that could: a live‑performance series shot in the cramped Washington, D.C. office where staffers actually work, then beamed out to millions through its digital channels and YouTube.
Born from an offhand joke by NPR’s Stephen Thompson that singer Laura Gibson should “just play at Bob’s desk” after a too‑quiet SXSW set, Bob Boilen and Thompson invited her into the office in 2008, filmed the intimate performance, and accidentally created the template for what would become Tiny Desk.
From there it evolved into a less uptight version of MTV Unplugged but for indie kids, rap superstars with something to prove, and legacy acts yearning to show off alongside colorful books and nicknacks.
This year, though, Tiny Desk found itself in the crosshairs of politics and public media economics, as the new administration in DC’s quest to eliminate federal monies to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Even though federal dollars make up just a fraction of NPR’s overall budget, who wants to lose any funding, particularly in this economy where everything cost more and more?
read more at: Setlist.fm
