Editing Doo-wop (section)

{{Short description|Style of rhythm and blues music}}
{{Other uses|Doo Wop (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} 
{{Infobox music genre
| name = Doo-wop
| stylistic_origins = {{hlist|[[Rhythm and blues]]<ref>[https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/doo-wop-music] - Encyclopedia.com</ref>}}
| cultural_origins = 1940s–1950s, [[African American]] communities across some major cities on the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]]
| derivatives = {{hlist|[[Beach music]]|[[beat music|beat]]|[[Brill Building (genre)|Brill Building]]|[[pop rock]]|[[power pop]]|[[soul music|soul]]|[[vocal surf]]|}}
| fusiongenres =
| regional_scenes = {{hlist|[[New York City]]|[[Philadelphia]]|[[Chicago]]|[[Baltimore]]|[[Los Angeles]]|[[Cincinnati]]|[[Pittsburgh]]}}
| other_topics = [['50s progression|'50s chord progression]]
| image = Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.jpg
| caption = [[The Teenagers]]
| subgenrelist =
}}

'''Doo-wop''' (also spelled '''doowop''' and '''doo wop''') is a [[Music genre#definitions|subgenre]] of [[rhythm and blues]] music that originated in [[African-American]] communities during the 1940s,<ref name="PriceKernodle2011">{{cite book|author=Philip Gentry|editor1=Emmett G. Price III|editor2=Tammy Lynn Kernodle|editor3=Horace Joseph Maxile|title=Encyclopedia of African American Music|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nVxgs_E57_EC&pg=PA298|year=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-34199-1|page=298|chapter=Doo-Wop}}</ref> mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.<ref name="Goosman2013">{{cite book|author=Stuart L. Goosman|title=Group Harmony: The Black Urban Roots of Rhythm and Blues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYoXAAAAQBAJ&pg=PR10|date=17 July 2013|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-0204-5|page=x}}</ref><ref name="Pitilli2016">{{cite book|author=Lawrence Pitilli|title=Doo-Wop Acappella: A Story of Street Corners, Echoes, and Three-Part Harmonies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kTO5DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA30|date=2 August 2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-1-4422-4430-6|page=30}}</ref> It features vocal group [[harmony]] that carries an engaging melodic line to a simple beat with little or [[a cappella|no instrumentation]]. Lyrics are simple, usually about love, sung by a lead vocal over background vocals, and often featuring, in the [[bridge (music)|bridge]], a melodramatically heartfelt [[recitative]] addressed to the beloved. Harmonic singing of nonsense syllables (such as "doo-wop") is a common characteristic of these songs.<ref name="Goldblatt2013">{{cite journal |author1=David Goldblatt |title=Nonsense in Public Places: Songs of Black Vocal Rhythm and Blues or Doo-Wop |journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism |date=2013 |volume=71 |issue=1 |page=105 |publisher=Wiley |jstor=23597540 |issn=0021-8529 |quote=Doo-wop is characterized by simple lyrics, usually about the trials and ecstasies of young love, sung by a lead vocal against a background of repeated nonsense syllables.}}</ref> Gaining popularity in the 1950s, doo-wop was commercially viable until the early 1960s and continued to influence performers in other genres.