NPR recently welcomed Geese to its Tiny Desk Concert series after a whirlwind 2025, with the intimate environment playing host to some of the band’s more restrained material. The band are the latest in an ever-growing line of esteemed artists to play at the studio, ranging from Super Bowl star Bad Bunny to legendary Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant, and that’s just in the last year. What keeps audiences and artists alike hooked to the format?
Geese’s Tiny Desk Concert shared much with its predecessors, particularly its meticulous sound design. Layered piano and guitar melodies float during ‘Cobra’, while the band’s knack for a patient build is showcased both in ‘Half Real’ and ‘Husbands’ — electing for grooves rather than barnburners like ‘Trinidad’. Indeed, the setting of Tiny Desk lends itself to a pensive approach, allowing room for music to breathe. The studio provides space for interaction too, at one point with frontman Cameron Winter jokes “NPR staffers don’t have this many friends”, inciting warm laughter from the crowd — heard but never seen. These fleeting moments give the format its signature homeliness.
A distilled emphasis on musicianship was the very root of Tiny Desk, with inspiration coming from NPR’s Stephen Thompson and Bob Boilen. In 2008 Thompson attended folk singer Laura Gibson’s gig at SXSW festival, where he found he couldn’t hear the music over the rumblings of a noisy bar. Boilen and Thompson collaborated to bring Laura Gibson to play a gig at Boilen’s workspace, and thus Tiny Desk was born. Although the same desk is not used today — misleadingly large rather than ‘tiny’ — the premise remains unchanged. Intimate performances, like Geese’s recent show, have allowed Tiny Desk to become an industry staple amassing billions of views. What makes a format this authentic so rare in the mainstream?
Simply put, profit. Other live formats — award shows, talk shows, sporting events — are all infected by corporatism and the desire for a spectacle. Instead, the ethos of college radio drives Tiny Desk, with more than half of NPR’s 1000 affiliated radio stations associated with universities across the USA. NPR runs as a non-profit with any income used to bring in artists and support its stations. It would be naïve to argue Tiny Desk Concerts are devoid of corporate influence — Levi’s is sponsoring their videos as of right now, with companies like these no doubt moulding the content of Tiny Desk Concerts to some degree. It is clear that Tiny Desk has not discarded the emphasis on diverse musicianship, with artists ranging from more obscure to mainstream still gracing the desk. Popularity has not sacrificed the format’s commitment to showcasing unfamiliar artists.
Tiny Desk is a manifestation of a very authentic love for sonics, a simple desire to enjoy music and nothing more. It is a testament to NPR that it has not altered this format beyond venue changes and has still allowed a close relationship between artists and audiences, both staff and online admirers. The format is the kind being threatened amidst increasing fascism in the USA. President Trump cut funding for the public broadcaster, labelling it a ‘waste of money’, with 2026 the first year the organisation has lacked federal funding. Despite this, NPR’s grassroots radio stations and Tiny Desk Concerts represent the antithesis to Trump’s apathy: diverse, unprofitable and joyous. Tiny Desk is a lesson in what can happen when art has been given impassioned care, and while the format itself is not under threat, it is crucial to safeguard those that are.
“On the NPR tour” by Selena N.B.H is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
