Getting a Handle on Angles

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Getting a Handle on Angles
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Your Task

• Its Halloween. Your editor wonders out loud
  Whatever happened to that guy who did Monster
  Mash? Why dont you interview him and see if
  theres some fresh angle in it

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Angle

• A chosen slant or focus on a story designed to
  attract the intended readers
• Here are 14 possible general angles
• Theyll need to be specifically honed for your
  article.
• (From Peter Jacobi, The Magazine Article.
  Bloomington, IN Indiana University Press, 1993)

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14 Typical Angles

• Problem
• Wants and needs
• Celebrity
• Heart strings
• Fear
• Competition
• Conflict

• Controversy
• The unknown
• The unusual
• Progress
• Solution or success
• Consequence
• Humour

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Bobby Boris Pickett

• One-hit Wonder Extraordinaire

2003
1962
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Bobby Boris Pickett

• One-hit Wonder Extraordinaire

2005
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Bobbys Bio

• Soldier ? Comedian
• Impersonations Boris Karloff
• Moved to LA? acting career
• Singing in doo-wop group Cordials
• 1962 Lenny Capizzi and Bobby wrote Monster Twist
  
• Took it to Gary Paxton to produce it changed it
  to Monster Mash (potato)

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Bobbys Bio
Brian Wilson
Pickett

• Song recorded May 1962 in one take
• Crypt-Kickers 5 Leon Russell, Sandy Nelson
• Paxton (Garpax Label) presses 1000 45s
• Hits 1 Oct. 15 1962
• Hits 10 June 1973 (Rhino)

Nelson
Russell
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Bobbys Bio

• ??Fast Forward to Oct, 2004
• Monster Slash
• We were hiking in the forest late one
  nightWhen our eyes beheld an eerie sightOur
  president appeared and began to frownThen he and
  his friends cut the forest down. .
• The Campaign to Protect America's Landsand
  Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund
• ?? 2005 Climate Mash

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Bobbys Bio

• Bobby "Boris" Pickett, whose dead-on Boris
  Karloff impression propelled the Halloween anthem
  to the top of the charts in 1962, making him one
  of pop music's most enduring one-hit wonders, has
  died of leukemia. He was 69.
• NEW YORK Apr 26, 2007 (AP)

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1. Problem

• If your readers believe that your subject unfolds
  a problem that they share or may face, then
  they'll pour through your words without
  hesitation.

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1. Problem

• Heres the problem In todays fractured music
  industry with styles and technology constantly in
  flux, how can you create a durable career
  especially if you only got one very specialized
  talent?
• Dont ask Ashley Simpson for advice. Go talk to
  Bobby Boris Picketthe knows the answer.

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1. Problem

• In a 1996 interview with People magazine, Pickett
  said he never grew tired of Monster Mash,
  although it surfaces every Halloween.
• "When I hear it, I hear a cash register ringing,"
  he said. "Its paid the rent for 34 years. It's
  now in what the record companies call perpetual
  release. It's the song that wouldn't die."

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2. Wants and needs

• Whatever your readers want or need, they'll want
  to read about. All you have to do is remind them
  that theyre going to want or need whatever you
  are asking them to want or need.

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2. Wants and needs

• So youve got a little nest-egg saved up and you
  want a sure-fire way to hold on to it for a
  rainy-day or retirement. Dont invest it in
  volatile stocks and bondsyou could lose your
  shirt. No. Invest it in producing a
  one-hit-wonder written about an annual event and
  youll be collecting royalties long after youve
  forgotten the tune. Bobby Picket did it, and in
  45 years, all hes lostis a little dignity.

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3. Celebrity
Brian Wilson

• People are interested in people. They are even
  more interested in well-known people. If someone
  famous can be used as the source or the object of
  an anecdote, include that someone.

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4. Heart strings

• The child saved from death through the gift of an
  organ.
• Good neighbours taking in a homeless family.
• An aging Fats Domino pulled out of the New
  Orleans flood waters.
• Human interest stories which tug at the heart
  captivate the reader.

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4. Heart strings
He does the "Monster Mash" no more.

• Bobby "Boris" Pickett, whose dead-on Boris
  Karloff impression propelled the Halloween anthem
  to the top of the charts in 1962, making him one
  of pop music's most enduring one-hit wonders, has
  died of leukemia. He was 69.

• Pickett, dubbed "The Guy Lombardo of Halloween,"
  died Wednesday night at the West Los Angeles
  Veterans Hospital, said his longtime manager,
  Stuart Hersh. His daughter, Nancy, and his
  sister, Lynda, were at Pickett's bedside.

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5. Fear

• What we fear intrigues us.
• ?Do not touch

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6. Competition

• In politics or sports, in contests or business,
  the element of competition may be present. If it
  is, use it.

Readers are fascinated by competition. Sports
pages are proof they wouldn't exist without our
enthusiasm for competitors in action.
Hip-Hop counts as a sport, right?
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7. Conflict

• Conflict--a more dangerous, potentially damaging
  form of competition--is what fills todays news.
  Whether individuals or nations are in conflict,
  their heated arguments, their struggles involve
  us.
• Remember

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8. Controversy

• Disagreements, whether in political campaigns or
  in college halls, interest other people
• Especially if these debates about beliefs,
  rights, and wrongs have impact on the readers

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8. Controversy

• Should entertainers get involved with politics?
  Bruce Springsteen and Matthew Good think so, and
  so does Bobby Boris Pickett. Bobby who?

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9. The unknown

• Inner and outer space intrigue us. If you can
  tell your readers about what they don't know or
  understand, but should or would like to, it will
  satisfy a longing.
• From the safety of their living-rooms they can
  explore dangerous physical or mind-numbing mental
  vistas with you.

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9. The unknown

• In our world we think that love is the answer,
  and we like to sing about ita lot. Not
  surprisingly, Love-songs are the staple of most
  musicians. So how does a 69-year old one-trick
  pony survive on royalties from a 40-year old
  one-hit wonder, especially when the song is about
  ghouls, death, and vampires? Actually, quite
  well.

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10. The unusual

• "Departure from the norm." Not what youd think.
  Readers are drawn to the different
• A museum for atheists
• A vampire census
• A clever Monster Mash video

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11. Progress

• We all love progress. News about
• Killer diseases and their cures
• Environmental successes
• Fight against Poverty
• Conflict resolution
• New technology
• Bring readers the latest on progress and
  improvements and they will gobble up your article.

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12. Solution or success

• When--in the generally discouraging course of
  human events--a victory occurs, people are
  generally elated. They want to know the good that
  has taken place. We all need encouragement.

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12. Solution or success

• Suppose you only had one tiny talent, and even
  that talent was pretending to be someone else. Do
  you think you could carve out an identity for
  yourself within an industry that eats novelty
  acts for breakfast? Bobby Picket did for 45 long
  years.

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13. Consequence

• Every magazine readership considers certain
  matters consequential. Perhaps

• Faith
• Weather
• Family
• Health

• Education
• Economic well-being
• The beauty of art
• Good and usable recipes

Think about what subjects and what aspects within
these subjects are consequential to the readers.
Fold those in.
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14. Humour

• The humorous handling of a less than important
  topic compels reading and brings pleasure.
• This year, the end of October means two things
  Halloween and George Bushs struggle to stay
  relevant. Usually, with the exception of those
  terrible rubber masks that bear an only slight
  resemblance to the politicians, those two things
  should be mutually exclusive. But who can resist
  an anti-Bush remake of "The Monster Mash, again?

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Classic Parade

• Darryl Sterdan Clear angle, focused throughout
• Concise, precise, imaginative descriptions of CD
  tracks (check out 4)
• Great flow decisive but fair voice
• Good balance of overview and detail
• Well-rounded close