This is a 1989 interview with musician Robert Palmer (RIP), a solo singer and front man for the band The Power Station. What I think is really interesting is the format—the interviewer is a robot that asks a series of questions from different categories. These categories include “Health and Happiness,” “Power and Glory,” etc. Questions range from ‘when did you last go to the dentist?’ and ‘how good are you at telling jokes?’ to ‘what are you searching for in life?’ and ‘how would you describe the perfect relationship?’ The interviewee picks from a menu of topics and then is given rapid fire questions.
Something about this is so fascinating to me. For context, the show itself was called Star Test and it showed on British Channel 4.
It must’ve been novel in the 1980s to have this kind of computer-led interview format. The world was different: There were no virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa. No smartphones and barely any cell phones. No social media and no online quizzes. Most people didn’t have personal computers. Getting questions from a robot was probably weird, even weirder than it would be today.
Even though these questions go fast, they don’t elicit super quotable soundbites or catch phrases. Some answers are thoughtful, some are humorous, and they reflect someone just talking. IMHO it can be hard to remember the world before TikTok’s and Reels etc. and everyone trying to boil themselves down to a perfect 10 seconds of content.
“Have you learned anything about yourself?” the robot asks at the end.
“That I prefer talking to people [over] machines,” Palmer replies with a slight chuckle.
