Assignment 1-3: Article Analysis

       In How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘‘N’’ Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music, Elijah Wald presents a chronicle of twentieth century American popular music that engages the academic and casual reader alike but also challenges many of the accepted truths regarding this topic. However, before discussing how the article acts as ‘‘an alternative history of American popular music,’’ one must come to terms with the first part of his title. Many would view his declaration that the Beatles destroyed rock music as blasphemous and, therefore, even more reason to learn if Wald’s work proves this provocative claim. Anyone looking for a book that discredits the contributions of the Beatles, or even focuses on this group extensively, will be disappointed. The Beatles do not enter into Wald’s narrative until the last paragraph, and even here the author does not set out to prove that they destroyed an entire genre of music. Instead, he notes that the Beatles mark the passing of an era of music. One which he recounts with care over the course of his article. Wald, a musician and the author of numerous books on the blues and folk rock, claims that while ‘‘it is standard practice to write rock history as a story of white musicians building on black foundations’’ the story is much more accurately told as black and white musicians evolving by ‘‘adopting and adapting one another’s styles, shaping a series of genres’’. He begins the work before the turn of the twentieth century with an examination of popular music as evidenced in sheet music, and then devotes half of the text exploring the beginnings of and interrelationships between ragtime, jazz, and swing.


reference
Antinora, S. (2010). How the Beatles Destroyed Rock “N” Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music by Elijah Wald. Journal of Popular Culture, 43(2), 408-409. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2010.00748.x

weekly analysis 5

      A key USB or flash drive is a removable peripheral of storage of small size which can be connected on port USB of a computer. A key USB embarks in a plasticized hull a connector, a memory with semiconductors, nonvolatile and rewriteable. A key USB is able to store several gig octets of data, while being able to preserve the data when the power supply is cut or when the key is disconnected. In practice a key USB is very practical for wandering users because it is very easy to transport and can contain a great quantity of documents and data. In addition, the recent mother charts allow to boot on keys USB, which means it is from now on possible to start a system with a simple key USB. Practical for the users wishing to have their work environment where they are or to start and repair a system in the event of planting.


Characteristics to be taken into account at the time of the choice of a USB key are the following ones:

Capacity

Rate of transfer: the speed of transfer of the data.

Functionalities of coding: certain keys propose tools allowing encoding the data or part of the data present on the key so to reinforce their confidentiality.

Data protection in writing: on certain keys, a material switch makes it possible to put the key in reading alone so to avoid the suppression or the modification of the data.

A flash drive occupies a great place in our daily life because most of us use it as a storage tool or transfer tool to transfer information from pc to pc. The only negative thing about is that when it is lost all the information are gone unless the user has it somewhere else as backup.

reference

Imation Swivel Pro Flash Drive", About.com, 2008, webpage: AboutCom-Swivel-Pro-Flash