18 Facts About Doo-wop

Doo-wop is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Detroit, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles.

Doo-wop's style is a mixture of precedents in composition, orchestration, and vocals that figured in American popular music created by songwriters and vocal groups, both black and white, from the 1930s to the 1940s.

Doo-wop music allowed these youths not only a means of entertaining themselves and others, but a way of expressing their values and worldviews in a repressive white-dominated society, often through the use of innuendo and hidden messages in the lyrics.

Doo-wop's style reflected the optimism of young black Americans in the postmigration era.

Doo-wop supplied Syd Nathan with many blues and doo-wop masters recorded in his primitive back-of-the-store studio from 1948 to 1954.

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Doo-wop sought artists who understood that the music had to be updated to appeal to a broader audience and attain greater commercial success.

Doo-wop groups formed on the west coast of the United States, especially in California, where the scene was centered in Los Angeles.

Doo-wop was popular with California Mexican Americans, who were attracted in the 1950s to its a capella vocals; the romantic style of the doo-wop groups appealed to them, as it was reminiscent of the traditional ballads and harmonies of Mexican folk music.

Doo-wop got into the music business in 1946 when he opened "Bobby's Record Shop" on the corner of 125th Street and Eighth Avenue, near the Apollo Theater, a noted venue for African-American performers.

Doo-wop used the tiny shop to launch a series of record labels which released many hits in the US.

Doo-wop was born in Harlem, where he began singing doo-wop songs with his friends on the streets.

Doo-wop soon had his own independent radio show, on which he introduced many doo-wop acts in the 1960s to a wide audience, including the Four Seasons, an Italian American group from Newark, New Jersey.

Doo-wop groups played a significant role in ushering in the rock and roll era when two big rhythm and blues hits by vocal harmony groups, "Gee" by the Crows, and "Sh-Boom" by the Chords, crossed over onto the pop music charts in 1954.

Doo-wop was a precursor to many of the African-American musical styles seen today.

Doo-wop's influence continued in soul, pop, and rock groups of the 1960s, including the Four Seasons, girl groups, and vocal surf music performers such as the Beach Boys.

Doo-wop is popular among barbershoppers and collegiate a cappella groups due to its easy adaptation to an all-vocal form.

Doo-wop experienced a resurgence in popularity at the turn of the 21st century with the airing of PBS's doo-wop concert programs: Doo Wop 50, Doo Wop 51, and Rock, Rhythm, and Doo Wop.

Doo-wop originally started out as the black teenage expression of the '50s and rap emerged as the black teenage ghetto expression of the '70s.