I hate Tiny Desk Concert.

I don’t know about you, but at first, I was like, “What’s the deal with these concerts at an office desk?” I mean, are we turning Excel spreadsheets into the new album charts? Why are these musicians allowed to take over people’s lunch breaks by playing their music? It’s all baffling for me.

For context, Tiny Desk Concerts is a series of YouTube videos of musicians playing songs on some random office desk of this guy named Bob Boilen or something at this place called NPR in Washington, D.C.

At first glance, I couldn’t understand what all the hype was about. I mean, come on, a tiny desk in an office setting as a backdrop for musical concerts? Is NPR trying to convince us that cubicles are the new concert halls? How about acoustics? I’m no sound engineer but it’s an open office, sound will go everywhere. For a radio station, NPR sure knows its sound engineering smh.

Some of you might say that you love Tiny Desk Concert, I mean fair enough. But lend me your eyes and attention as I convince you why you should hate the Tiny Desk Concert:

Tiny Desk Concert ruins all recordings of an artist. 5 years ago, I hadn’t listened to Tyler, The Creator before, and one day I saw Tyler’s Tiny Desk Concert video, clicked on it, and  I was expecting high-energy, hype beats because I knew Tyler was a rapper and stuff but it started off with this outrageous intro by the backup singers. I mean the audacity! Also, there were no high-energy, hype beats, it was all laid-back, acoustic, chill vibes. I was flabbergasted. The man even went to Bossa Nova around the middle of the first song. I kept an open mind and watched the entire concert. Then one day I was curious if the songs Tyler played were the same arrangement as their Tiny Desk Concert. But little did I know… It wasn’t! I felt betrayed because the Tiny Desk Concert version was miles better than the recorded version! How am I supposed to listen to this on Spotify? Speaking of Spotify…

Tiny Desk Concert is not on Spotify. I mean, I have Spotify, you have Spotify, everyone mostly has a Spotify so, listening to it on the road in transit, when I’m writing this article on my phone on the way to school, it would be great to listen to these audacious concerts on your transit while doing assignments, while you cleaning your place. I would assume it’s easy to put them on Spotify and just direct all the money to the respective artists based on agreement. I don’t get why they haven’t done this yet after 10+ years. There is YouTube Music though but I’m not gonna pay another subscription just to listen to the concerts as audio.

I hope that this convinces you to hate the Tiny Desk Concert. For now, let’s just grumble together and wait for the next Tiny Desk Concert video to arrive.