doo-wop

[ doo-wop ]

noun

, Popular Music.

1. a style of small-group vocal harmonizing, commercialized as a type of so-called street singing in the 1950s, in which words and nonsense syllables are chanted in rhythmic harmony to support the stylized melody of the lead singer.

doo-wop

/ ˈduːˌwɒp /

noun

1. rhythm-and-blues harmony vocalizing developed by unaccompanied street-corner groups in the US in the 1950s

Word History and Origins

Origin of doo-wop¹

Representing the chanted syllables

Word History and Origins

Origin of doo-wop¹

C20: of imitative origin

Example Sentences

I used to sing just to do it, but then Art put together a doo-wop group.

From The Daily Beast

You can hear his love for the doo wop of his youth in Velvets songs like “I Found a Reason” and “Candy Says.”

From The Daily Beast

I knew a doo-wop group that sings in the subway and around the city, and I wanted to get them involved.

From The Daily Beast

Amy Winehouse incorporated a lot of Motown and soul and doo-wop into her stuff, an updated version of it.

From The Daily Beast

This kind of situation happened over and over again in the big-band years and later during the doo-wop era.

From The Daily Beast