Decker was graduated from Fresno Pacific College in 1989, then earned a Master of Music degree in harpsichord from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1991. He completed the Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in 2007 and joined the faculty of Washington University in St Louis that same year.

Decker's research, teaching, and publications generally focus on American popular music from 1920 to the present, with particular emphasis on the Broadway and Hollywood musical, Hollywood film music (and sound), the recorded popular music industry, and jazz (before 1970).

Publications

Books

• {{cite book |last=Decker |first=Todd |title=Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz |year=2011 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0520268906}}
• {{cite book |last=Decker |first=Todd |title=Show Boat: Performing Race in an American Musical |year=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0190250539}}
• {{cite book |last=Decker |first=Todd |title=Who Should Sing 'Ol' Man River'?: The Lives of an American Song |year=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199389186}}
• {{cite book |last=Decker |first=Todd |title=Hymns for the Fallen: Combat Movie Music and Sound after Vietnam |year=2017 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0520282322}}

References