Popular music scholar Melissa A. Weber – also known as award-winning performer and broadcaster DJ Soul Sister – has been tapped to teach “History of Urban Music,” a new course offered in Loyola University’s Urban and Electronic Music Production undergraduate degree program.
Weber has a 25-year career as a show host and broadcaster for WWOZ-FM, an epicenter of New Orleans’ music and culture. She is also the host and founder of “Soul Power,” one of the longest-running rare groove radio show in the U.S.
DJ Soul SisterIn joining the faculty of Loyola’s College of Music and Media, Weber will bring to the school her storied history as a broadcaster, as well as an artist “who has performed locally and overseas and as a researcher who has translated her love of learning about music into writing and presenting work in both scholarly and journalist arenas,” said university officials.
“We are thoroughly elated that Melissa will be joining us to bestow her incredibly deep knowledge and experience in her musical ‘home space’ this Fall. Melissa is the rare combination of academic passion and storied musical success,” said Kate Duncan, associate director of the School of Music Industry at Loyola New Orleans.
“I’m excited to be a part of this new and important course offering at Loyola, not only because of my passion for the subject, but because the history of this music is something that young people are hungry for,” said Weber. “It’s important to me that people have a foundation in learning where the music they create and partake in comes from, and that they understand the continuum, lineage, and roots of Black popular music in America.”
