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Doo Wop, a name that not all of the music’s devotees embrace, was music made by vocal groups. In the age of early Rock and Roll, the vocal groups connected with Doo Wop were turning out some of Rock and Roll’s most enduring and successful music. In cities like New York, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, Doo Wop was often practiced on the street. As with many among Rock and Roll’s most influential styles, Doo Wop, like Hip Hop so many years later, didn’t require classical training, knowledge of instruments, excessive equipment, or a rehearsal hall. Singers improvised in imitation of the instruments they didn’t have, managing to create a “group” sound with none of the trappings and all of the energy.
The roots of Doo Wop are multiple, but perhaps the most conspicuous trail leads back to the Mills Brothers. The Mills Brothers penetrated the mainstream as no African-American act before them, with songs like “Paper Doll” of 1943 providing them with massive popular hits. Early on in their career, the Mills Brothers started using their voices to imitate instruments, an approach that would become central in the Doo Wop style. But perhaps more than anything, the Mills Brothers can be credited with cultivating the audience’s love of the vocal group sound.
Lessons that will come in the second phase of the RRAS project will focus on groups like the Flamingos, the Orioles, the Crows, and the Penguins — the so-called “Bird Groups” — and on the cities from which those groups came. One of America’s great street sounds, Doo Wop is a genre that makes clear the democratic spirit of Rock and Roll culture.
lesson:
The Musical Roots of Doo Wop
How did Doo Wop develop as a musical genre?
Video
video:
Doo Wop
Doo Wop, a name that not all of the music's devotees embrace, was music made by vocal groups. In the age of early Rock and Roll, the vocal groups connected with Doo Wop were turning out some of Rock and Roll's most enduring and successful music. In cities like New York, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, Doo Wop was often practiced on the street. As with many among Rock and Roll's most influential styles, Doo Wop, like Hip Hop so many years later, didn't require classical training, knowledge of instruments, excessive equipment, or a rehearsal hall. Singers improvised in imitation of the instruments they didn't have, managing to create a "group" sound with none of the trappings and all of the energy. The roots of Doo Wop are multiple, but perhaps the most conspicuous trail leads back to the Mills Brothers. The Mills Brothers penetrated the mainstream as no African-American act before them, with songs like "Paper Doll" of 1943 providing them with massive popular hits. Early on in their career, the Mills Brothers started using their voices to imitate instruments, an approach that would become central in the Doo Wop style. But perhaps more than anything, the Mills Brothers can be credited with cultivating the audience's love of the vocal group sound. Lessons that will come in the second phase of the RRAS project will focus on groups like the Flamingos, the Orioles, the Crows, and the Penguins -- the so-called "Bird Groups" -- and on the cities from which those groups came. One of America's great street sounds, Doo Wop is a genre that makes clear the democratic spirit of Rock and Roll culture.
video:
Doo Wop
Doo Wop, a name that not all of the music's devotees embrace, was music made by vocal groups. In the age of early Rock and Roll, the vocal groups connected with Doo Wop were turning out some of Rock and Roll's most enduring and successful music. In cities like New York, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, Doo Wop was often practiced on the street. As with many among Rock and Roll's most influential styles, Doo Wop, like Hip Hop so many years later, didn't require classical training, knowledge of instruments, excessive equipment, or a rehearsal hall. Singers improvised in imitation of the instruments they didn't have, managing to create a "group" sound with none of the trappings and all of the energy. The roots of Doo Wop are multiple, but perhaps the most conspicuous trail leads back to the Mills Brothers. The Mills Brothers penetrated the mainstream as no African-American act before them, with songs like "Paper Doll" of 1943 providing them with massive popular hits. Early on in their career, the Mills Brothers started using their voices to imitate instruments, an approach that would become central in the Doo Wop style. But perhaps more than anything, the Mills Brothers can be credited with cultivating the audience's love of the vocal group sound. Lessons that will come in the second phase of the RRAS project will focus on groups like the Flamingos, the Orioles, the Crows, and the Penguins -- the so-called "Bird Groups" -- and on the cities from which those groups came. One of America's great street sounds, Doo Wop is a genre that makes clear the democratic spirit of Rock and Roll culture.
video:
I’m Not a Juvenile Delinquent
Doo Wop, a name that not all of the music's devotees embrace, was music made by vocal groups. In the age of early Rock and Roll, the vocal groups connected with Doo Wop were turning out some of Rock and Roll's most enduring and successful music. In cities like New York, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, Doo Wop was often practiced on the street. As with many among Rock and Roll's most influential styles, Doo Wop, like Hip Hop so many years later, didn't require classical training, knowledge of instruments, excessive equipment, or a rehearsal hall. Singers improvised in imitation of the instruments they didn't have, managing to create a "group" sound with none of the trappings and all of the energy. The roots of Doo Wop are multiple, but perhaps the most conspicuous trail leads back to the Mills Brothers. The Mills Brothers penetrated the mainstream as no African-American act before them, with songs like "Paper Doll" of 1943 providing them with massive popular hits. Early on in their career, the Mills Brothers started using their voices to imitate instruments, an approach that would become central in the Doo Wop style. But perhaps more than anything, the Mills Brothers can be credited with cultivating the audience's love of the vocal group sound. Lessons that will come in the second phase of the RRAS project will focus on groups like the Flamingos, the Orioles, the Crows, and the Penguins -- the so-called "Bird Groups" -- and on the cities from which those groups came. One of America's great street sounds, Doo Wop is a genre that makes clear the democratic spirit of Rock and Roll culture.
video:
Paper Doll
Doo Wop, a name that not all of the music's devotees embrace, was music made by vocal groups. In the age of early Rock and Roll, the vocal groups connected with Doo Wop were turning out some of Rock and Roll's most enduring and successful music. In cities like New York, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, Doo Wop was often practiced on the street. As with many among Rock and Roll's most influential styles, Doo Wop, like Hip Hop so many years later, didn't require classical training, knowledge of instruments, excessive equipment, or a rehearsal hall. Singers improvised in imitation of the instruments they didn't have, managing to create a "group" sound with none of the trappings and all of the energy. The roots of Doo Wop are multiple, but perhaps the most conspicuous trail leads back to the Mills Brothers. The Mills Brothers penetrated the mainstream as no African-American act before them, with songs like "Paper Doll" of 1943 providing them with massive popular hits. Early on in their career, the Mills Brothers started using their voices to imitate instruments, an approach that would become central in the Doo Wop style. But perhaps more than anything, the Mills Brothers can be credited with cultivating the audience's love of the vocal group sound. Lessons that will come in the second phase of the RRAS project will focus on groups like the Flamingos, the Orioles, the Crows, and the Penguins -- the so-called "Bird Groups" -- and on the cities from which those groups came. One of America's great street sounds, Doo Wop is a genre that makes clear the democratic spirit of Rock and Roll culture.
video:
Would I Be Crying
Doo Wop, a name that not all of the music's devotees embrace, was music made by vocal groups. In the age of early Rock and Roll, the vocal groups connected with Doo Wop were turning out some of Rock and Roll's most enduring and successful music. In cities like New York, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, Doo Wop was often practiced on the street. As with many among Rock and Roll's most influential styles, Doo Wop, like Hip Hop so many years later, didn't require classical training, knowledge of instruments, excessive equipment, or a rehearsal hall. Singers improvised in imitation of the instruments they didn't have, managing to create a "group" sound with none of the trappings and all of the energy. The roots of Doo Wop are multiple, but perhaps the most conspicuous trail leads back to the Mills Brothers. The Mills Brothers penetrated the mainstream as no African-American act before them, with songs like "Paper Doll" of 1943 providing them with massive popular hits. Early on in their career, the Mills Brothers started using their voices to imitate instruments, an approach that would become central in the Doo Wop style. But perhaps more than anything, the Mills Brothers can be credited with cultivating the audience's love of the vocal group sound. Lessons that will come in the second phase of the RRAS project will focus on groups like the Flamingos, the Orioles, the Crows, and the Penguins -- the so-called "Bird Groups" -- and on the cities from which those groups came. One of America's great street sounds, Doo Wop is a genre that makes clear the democratic spirit of Rock and Roll culture.
video:
The Things We Did Last Summer
Doo Wop, a name that not all of the music's devotees embrace, was music made by vocal groups. In the age of early Rock and Roll, the vocal groups connected with Doo Wop were turning out some of Rock and Roll's most enduring and successful music. In cities like New York, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, Doo Wop was often practiced on the street. As with many among Rock and Roll's most influential styles, Doo Wop, like Hip Hop so many years later, didn't require classical training, knowledge of instruments, excessive equipment, or a rehearsal hall. Singers improvised in imitation of the instruments they didn't have, managing to create a "group" sound with none of the trappings and all of the energy. The roots of Doo Wop are multiple, but perhaps the most conspicuous trail leads back to the Mills Brothers. The Mills Brothers penetrated the mainstream as no African-American act before them, with songs like "Paper Doll" of 1943 providing them with massive popular hits. Early on in their career, the Mills Brothers started using their voices to imitate instruments, an approach that would become central in the Doo Wop style. But perhaps more than anything, the Mills Brothers can be credited with cultivating the audience's love of the vocal group sound. Lessons that will come in the second phase of the RRAS project will focus on groups like the Flamingos, the Orioles, the Crows, and the Penguins -- the so-called "Bird Groups" -- and on the cities from which those groups came. One of America's great street sounds, Doo Wop is a genre that makes clear the democratic spirit of Rock and Roll culture.
Print Journalism
article:
Frankie Lymon: Why Do Fools Fall In Love?
Black vocal groups once sang for enjoyment on street-corners throughout ghettos in each of the big American cities. Late into the night they harmonised together, sublimating a frustration which exploded by day. Zip-gun safely stored in the cistern, a Harlem teenager could leave his decaying tenement and join others for an acapella session in a dingy pool-hall or on a deserted subway platform. Street-corner talent-spotting became the normal way for a group to obtain a record contract. An audition from the guy who crossed the road to listen might mean gifts for all the folks and a shiny Cadillac. As groups proliferated...
article:
Doo-wop: At The Hop
White vocal groups of the Fifties embraced a variety of styles and sounds, ranging from adult pop groups (the Ames Brothers, the Four Aces, the Hilltoppers), through shameless pop-rockers who covered the R&B hits of the day (the Crewcuts, the McGuire Sisters, the Diamonds) to a vast army of teenage singing groups who naturally absorbed black vocal mannerisms. Some, like the Skyliners and the Belmonts, rivaled the best black harmony groups but, before the emergence of such quartets, white doo-wop was synonymous with plagiarism and what might be termed 'sham-rock'. The king of sham-rock was Bill Randle, a Cleveland disc jockey...