doo-wop
[doo-wop]
- 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.
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Origin of doo-wop
representing the chanted syllables
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for doo-wop
Contemporary Examples
I used to sing just to do it, but then Art put together a doo-wop group.
The Stacks: The Neville Brothers Stake Their Claim as Bards of the BayouJohn Ed Bradley
April 27, 2014
I knew a doo-wop group that sings in the subway and around the city, and I wanted to get them involved.
Doo-Wop ‘We Can’t Stop’: Behind the Ridiculously Good Miley Cyrus CoverKevin Fallon
September 11, 2013
Amy Winehouse incorporated a lot of Motown and soul and doo-wop into her stuff, an updated version of it.
Doo-Wop ‘We Can’t Stop’: Behind the Ridiculously Good Miley Cyrus CoverKevin Fallon
September 11, 2013
This kind of situation happened over and over again in the big-band years and later during the doo-wop era.
doo-wop
- rhythm-and-blues harmony vocalizing developed by unaccompanied street-corner groups in the US in the 1950s
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Word Origin
C20: of imitative origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for doo-wop
1958, from the nonsense harmony phrases sung under the vocal lead (this one attested from mid-1950s).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper