One weekend evening, I was sitting on the couch with my laptop on my lap watching Nirvana’s Unplugged from 1993. Kurt Cobain,  hunched over the acoustic guitar, looked surprisingly natural sitting there, quietly singing covers of “Lake of Fire'' and “Man Who Sold The World.” In contrast to a usual Nirvana concert, featuring guitar smashing, crazy drums and lots of jumping, this performance must have been another world for Cobain. 

 

A friend of my moms, who saw what I was watching, told me to look up Pearl Jam’s MTV Unplugged. 

 

I listened, only because I was being nice. The first result was Pearl Jam’s song “Black.” 

 

I don't know if it was Eddie Vedder's facial expressions, or the dramatic vocals accentuated by the acoustic guitars and simple drumming, but I watched that video 20 more times over the course of the week. 

 

Later, I scoured my dad’s stacks for old CDs for Pearl Jam and found a Best of MTV unplugged. 

 

And into MTV’s music history I fell. 

 

MTV Unplugged is a series of stripped down performances by popular musicians. While Unplugged has released some performances in recent years such as Sean Mendez, it was revolutionary in its days of popularity, the main reason being that it was the first time a performance was broadcasted on television. 

 

After the 90s, Unplugged fell into disrepair, not as popular anymore. They’ve tried to revive it, but the original awe just wasn’t there. 

 

The modern day Unplugged definitely has to be NPRs Tiny Desk series. Like Unplugged, Tiny Desk makes a musician feel so much closer, and so much more human than when their music is streaming off of Spotify. It also gives the artist a chance to be creative, to use the tiny space they have to their advantage. There are no fancy stage lights or flips or fire, just an artist and their music. 

 

When COVID hit and concerts were canceled, Tiny Desk and concert recordings took their place for many music lovers, including me. 

 

The at home Tiny Desk series kicked off with Soccer Mommy performing acoustically from her album released in 2020. She maintained her signature pigtails and purple eyeshadow even though she played on her own, acoustically in her living room and the video could have been taken in selfie mode on her phone. It was the simplicity though that made this new type of video so relatable to the new time. 

 

With this new way of producing Tiny Desk, the producers have much less work to do, meaning they could release more at-home concerts in a shorter duration. In one year, Tiny Desk released nearly 150 at home concerts. 

 

Tiny Desk producers embraced the daunting task they faced: entertaining the public from home. They let the artists really take the wheel, allowing them to be as creative as they’d like. 

 

Most of them lived up to this role. For example, Miley Cyrus begins her set with a dramatic cover of Fade Into You. Dressed in a CowBoy hat and animal print pants, Cyrus lounges in what appears to be a tiny teenage girl's bedroom. Before the last song, the camera zooms out and shows that the room is in fact a box within a garage. While I’m not entirely sure of the message if there is one, it's pretty cool. 

 

In the Flaming Lips set, all of the bad members appear in gigantic inflatable bubbles. Supposedly, the Flaming Lips used to use these bubbles to roll around on top of the crowd during their concerts, but now, the use of the bubbles to remain quarantined is a funny and sad tribute to the past and the present. 

 

Another enchanting performance was Dua Lipa, who is lightly  dancing and singing in what looks like a living room in an orange studio. Released in December, quarantine rules were more relaxed, so Lipa used the opportunity to perform with her band for the first time since her tour was canceled. The enthusiasm is present in this performance and Lipa’s smile is contagious. 

 

Rod Wave’s set gives off similar vibes, with a little more grooviness. Wave filmed with his band outside, in front of a leafy gazebo. The hugely successful artist gives a very sincere side of himself in this Tiny Desk. He bops around in between his verses and the accompanying saxophone makes the show all more luxurious for the at home viewers. 

 

While many of the musicians performed with a band, especially as the vaccine made contact more safe, some artists took the opportunity to perform on their own, acoustically, providing a real stripped-down feeling, much like what Unplugged was aiming for. 

 

Watching Robin Peckhold of the Fleet Foxes performance, it was very clear it had been a while since he had to speak to people. Still, with just his voice and a guitar, I was able to understand his songs with a much deeper meaning than before. The simplicity of the performance was so relaxing. 

 

Adrianne Lenker of  Big Thief sent her peacefulness through the screen to all of us stuck at home from her trailer parked in Joshua Tree National Park. At one point during her stirring performance, she picked up a paintbrush and began strumming her guitar with it. The camera shakes a little bit there and zooms in on her face as she begins singing. 

 

She lent me an escape ladder from the present world and I couldn't stop watching.