Rate My Professor Jayson Beaster-Jones

Jayson Beaster-Jones is a Professor of Music in the Global Arts Studies Program at the University of California, Merced. He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago (2007), an M.A. in Anthropology from the same institution (2000), and a B.A. in Music and Anthropology from Whitman College (1995). Before joining UC Merced, he taught at Texas A&M University, Augustana College, and the University of Chicago.

An ethnomusicologist, Beaster-Jones focuses on the music industry of India, including Bollywood film songs, music commodities, markets, and values. His key publications include the books Bollywood Sounds: The Cosmopolitan Mediations of Hindi Film Song (Oxford University Press, 2015), Music Commodities, Markets, and Values: Music as Merchandise (Routledge, 2016), and Dil Chahta Hai Soundtrack (Bloomsbury, 2024). He co-edited Music in Contemporary Indian Film: Memory, Voice, Identity (Routledge, 2017) and is co-editor of forthcoming works such as The Routledge Handbook of Cinemas of South Asia (2026, with Ajay Gehlawat) and Oxford Handbook of Music Industry Studies (with Kaleb Goldschmitt). His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in Ethnomusicology, Popular Music, and South Asian Popular Culture. Beaster-Jones has received grants from the Fulbright-Hays DDRA, Thomas J. Watson Foundation, UC Humanities Research Initiative, California Humanities, UC Humanities Research Institute, Luce Family Foundation, California Arts Council, and UC Merced's Center for the Humanities. In 2025, he and Patricia Vergara received a three-year Multicampus Research Program Initiative grant for a project on Merced County's soundscapes amid climate change. He co-directs the Gateway to Merced Project, an oral history initiative, and runs Music Memory Hours exploring music, memory, and aging. Additionally, he co-produces the What's Your Problem podcast and leads the G Street Revolution faculty ensemble.