He earned his B.A. (1988) from Amherst College and his M.A. and Ph.D. (1995) from the University of California, Berkeley. He previously taught humanities and popular culture in the interdisciplinary honors college of Valparaiso University, joining the University of Minnesota faculty in 2001. Prof. Mercer-Taylor's scholarship has been divided between the19th-century German classical tradition—Felix Mendelssohn in particular—and contemporary popular music, including the work of the Bangles, Elvis Costello, Bill Staines, and R.E.M. He is currently at work on a book on the impact of European classical music on 19th-century American hymnody.