My friend Oscar says this style of music got its name because it was invented by Italian-Americans in New York City, and they are sometimes referred to by the racial slur “wop”. This sounds like a reasonable enough explanation, only my friend Oscar is kind of an idiot. Plus he’s a bigot.
Also, I thought Italians were usually called “guinneas” more than “wops”. Although “doo guinnea” doesn’t really sound all that catchy so I couldn’t understand why that never caught on.
10 Answers
My Daddy was a doo-wopper and he says it was about the streets. It was the equivalent of the Dirty South. It’s like the same thing cause my Daddy said that when him and the other Italian kids in the neighborhood would fight the other gangs in the “hood” they would sing, dance, and then fight. There is actually a documentary about the West Side area of the neighborhood that kind of touches on some of this. The Doo-Woppers would sing and when one guy would sing the others would sing behind him. It was like a chant to scare the other gangs. My Daddy said it was like the crips and the bloods or the Dirty South. The phrase “Doo Wop” came from this fighting/singing warfare.
Where Did Doo Wop Originate
You ask, How did “doo wop” music get its name?
I invite you to visit the http://doowopcove.com/
Listen to the best Doo Wop music and come into Radio Chat Room . There are Live D.J’s and participants that will surely answer that question for you. Do you know what the first “DooWop Song was ? LOL
By the way your friend Oscar is not even close to the correct answer.
Come check us out. I am always there! Look for me Rocco
Hope you check it out ! Best DooWop & Oldies !
Doo-wop is a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music, which was started in the black community and became popular in the mid-1950s to the early 1960s in the United States
An African American vocal style known as doo-wop emerged from the streets of New York City and Philadelphia. Doo-wop, with its smooth harmonies, was the closest rock style to mainstream pop in the mid-1950’s. The Orioles helped develop the doo-wop sound with their hits “It’s Too Soon to Know” (1948) and “Crying in the Chapel” (1953). Other important African American doo-wop groups included the Coasters, the Drifters, the Moonglows, and the Platters. The style spread to singing groups of other ethnicities, such as the Capris, Dion and the Belmonts, the Earls, and the Tokens.
The term “doo-wop” was taken from the ad-lib syllables sung in harmony in doo-wop songs. Two songs in particular may lay claim to being the “first” to contain the syllables “doo wop” in the refrain: the 1955 hit, “When You Dance” by The Turbans, in which the chant “doo wop” can be plainly heard; and the 1956 classic “In the Still of the Night” by The Five Satins, with the plaintive “doo wop, doo wah” refrain in the bridge. It has been erroneously reported that the phrase was coined by radio disc jockey Gus Gossert in the late 1950s. However, Gossert himself has said that “doo-wop(p) was already being used [before me] to categorize the music in California[2]”.
Actually, the name “doo-wop” is a 70’s appelation which has absolutely NOTHING to do with Italians or ethnic slurs, THANK GOD. It refers to the nonsensical background vocal harmony sounds of the group……singing “shoo doo be doo” or “doo wop doo wah” or “bomp ba bomp bomp” or “sha na na na” behind the lead singer…..so calling it simply ‘doo-wop music’ is really just a shorter way than calling it what it really is known as, namely: “CLASSIC RHYTHM AND BLUES VOCAL GROUP HARMONY”. Tune in to the KEN HELD DOO-WOP SHOP” and enjoy the music….. Radio in South Florida each Sunday 4pm Eastern Time on 1040 WLVJ-AM….or Internet same time WWW.WLVJ.COM …..LISTEN and LEARN…..and do NOT listen to ‘idiots’ or ‘bigots’. WORD!
Little known fact: Doo wop was actually invented by Ringo Starr before he founded the Bee Gees, and the music was actually called “bee gee” for a time because of Ringo’s “B”ig “G”-d–n nose. But once the Bee Gees hit it big, they had to change the name to the alternate “doo wop,” which is the sound Ringo’s nose makes when he’s congested.
Doo-wop was named after the syllables (as opposed to words) doo-wop singers used in their songs.
doo wop is african american music the name comes from the noise pepole make when they sing they siply say doo wop Bam that your answer
I don’t know the title, but it goes “play that funky music, white boy.”
asshole bigots