Biography
I am an ethnomusicologist and popular music scholar whose work examines how popular music cultures engage with the past.
Research Interests
Jazz, Hip Hop, Funk, Rock, Soul Music, Technology, Sampling, Intellectual Property, Activism
Research Description
My forthcoming book (University Press of Mississippi, Spring 2024) Same Old Song: The Enduring Past in Popular Music examines topics such as the sampling of soul and funk recordings from the 1970s in hip-hop, the live performance of "standards" among jazz musicians, and the recording of songs from the "Great American Songbook" by pop and rock musicians. My articles on Miles Davis in the mid-1960s, tribute bands, rock music in Mexico City and Buenos Aires, and cultural politics in African American music have been published in Jazz Perspectives, Ethnomusicology, Ethnomusicology Forum, and the Journal of Popular Music Studies. My most recent essay analyzes autobiographies of hip-hop musicians and examines them in context of the larger Black autobiographical tradition and hip-hop culture's own obsession with reality and authenticity. This was recently published in CLA Journal. In 2016, I won the Richard Waterman Prize from the Popular Music Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology for best article by a junior scholar. For 2021-2023, I am a Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors scholar through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UIUC.
Education
- University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D., 2011
- Columbia University, B.A., 2005
Courses Taught
AFRO 132 -- African American Music
AFRO 228 -- Hip-Hop Music: History and Culture
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, African American Studies
Recent Publications
Meyers, J. P. (2015). Standards and Signification between Jazz and Fusion: Miles Davis and “I Fall in Love Too Easily,” 1963–1970. Jazz Perspectives, 9(2), 113-136. https://doi.org/10.1080/17494060.2016.1196495
Meyers, J. P. (2015). Still like that old time rock and roll: Tribute bands and historical consciousness in popular music. Ethnomusicology, 59(1), 61-81. https://doi.org/10.5406/ethnomusicology.59.1.0061
Meyers, J. P. (2015). The Beatles in Buenos Aires, Muse in Mexico City: Tribute bands and the global consumption of rock music. Ethnomusicology Forum, 24(3), 329-348. https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2015.1067572
Meyers, J. P. (2014). Review: M. Sakakeeny's Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans. Jazz Perspectives, 8(1), 103-107. https://doi.org/10.1080/17494060.2014.961333
Meyers, J. P. (2013). Review: M. Katz's Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ by Mark Katz. Notes, 70(1), 109-111. https://doi.org/10.1353/not.2013.0123