1. Doo-wop | Origins, Style & Influence - Britannica
Doo-wop, style of rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll vocal music popular in the 1950s and '60s. The structure of doo-wop music generally featured a tenor ...
Doo-wop, style of rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll vocal music popular in the 1950s and ’60s. The structure of doo-wop music generally featured a tenor lead vocalist singing the melody of the song with a trio or quartet singing background harmony. The term doo-wop is derived from the sounds made
2. Rhythm and Blues | Popular Songs of the Day - Library of Congress
The term "rhythm and blues," often called "R&B," originated in the 1940s ... The term "doo-wop" is well known now, but it was not applied to these groups ...
The term "rhythm and blues," often called "R&B," originated in the 1940s when it replaced "race music" as a general marketing term for all African American music, though it usually referred only to secular, not religious music. The term first appeared in commercial recording in 1948, when RCA Victor records began using "blues and rhythm" music as a descriptor for African American secular songs. The migration of African Americans to urban centers in the Northeast and Midwest during the early twentieth century helped to bring various regional styles of African American music together to influence one another. The migration also created new markets for these styles of music. Early on the term "rhythm and blues" was used for boogie woogie, African American swing, jazz, and blues. All of these styles influenced the development of what is called rhythm and blues today.
3. DOO-WOP Definition of the Genre
Doo-wop represents a subcategory of vocal group harmony that includes the following musical qualities: group harmony, a wide range of vocal parts, nonsense ...
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4. 2 Singing Smoothly: Masculinity in Early Doo-Wop - Oxford Academic
This is especially true for doo-wop, a genre often seen as straddling multiple worlds: it was secular but influenced by gospel quartets; it featured “white ...
AbstractThe early R&B vocal group the Orioles are often credited with launching the musical style later known as doo-wop, especially with their 1949 hit “It
5. R&B, the Essential Guide: evolution, icons, Contemporary R&B / Soul
The contemporary sound of R&B really started to take shape in the 1950s and 60s. Crucially, during this time was the rise of doo-wop, a vocal style that relied ...
All you need to know on R&B music: the history of R&B, evolution, sub-genres and artists that have made contemporary R&B what it is today
6. 6.2 The Evolution of Popular Music | Media and Culture - Lumen Learning
... doo-wop, and soul, the four mop-haired musicians from Liverpool, England ... Combining R&B, pop, gospel, and blues into a genre known as soul, vocalists such ...
The first stirrings of popular or pop music—any genre of music that appeals to a wide audience or subculture—began in the late 19th century, with discoveries by Thomas Edison and Emile Berliner. In 1877, Edison discovered that sound could be reproduced using a strip of tinfoil wrapped around a rotating metal cylinder. Edison’s phonograph provided ideas and inspiration for Berliner’s gramophone, which used flat discs to record sound. The flat discs were cheaper and easier to produce than were the cylinders they replaced, enabling the mass production of sound recordings. This would have a huge impact on the popular music industry, enabling members of the middle class to purchase technology that was previously available only to an elite few. Berliner founded the Berliner Gramophone Company to manufacture his discs, and he encouraged popular operatic singers such as Enrico Caruso and Dame Nellie Melba to record their music using his system. Opera singers were the stars of the 19th century, and their music generated most of the sheet music sales in the United States. Although the gramophone was an exciting new development, it would take 20 years for disc recordings to rival sheet music in commercial importance (Shepherd, 2003).
7. [PDF] American Popular Music
Left to Right: The Flamingos, a popular 1950s doo-wop group. Billy Ward and the Dominoes, a top R&B group of that decade, launched the career of Jackie Wilson.
8. The Year in Doo-Wop on RYM: 1956 - Rate Your Music
"Come to Me" is a dreamy ballad with the classic doo-wop features of piano triplets and jazzy guitar fills. However, the uptempo, R&B rave-up "What Can the ...
1956 was probably one of rock and roll's greatest years, but it was also a strong year for another genre- doo-wop. It was the year when uptempo doo-wop fully emerged as an important sound in American pop. Around 100 of RYM's top 1000 rated singles for 1956 are from the doo-wop category, meaning the innovative spirit of mid-50s doo-wop has retained its appeal for half a century. This list shows the top 100 doo-wops from the year as rated by users of this site. I have now greatly extended the stubs for every song; multiple sources have been referenced in compiling this information. As of November 28, 2016, these rankings have been thoroughly updated.
9. Music History Quiz 5 Flashcards
Oct 29, 2008 · What California vocal group combined surfer themes with jazzy doo-wop vocals and Chuck Berry-style guitar and developed one of the most ...
What artist, dubbed "King of the Surf Guitar," created a style copied by better known surfer groups?
10. Listening Notes
Jul 1, 2008 · ... commercially successful motion pictures ... Dion and the Belmonts were the most successful, and the most authentic, of the many white "doo-wop ...
Syllabus
11. The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time | Rolling Stone
... doo-wop soul man ("The Longest Time"), trying out jazzy Scorcese-like ... "A song is like a dream, and you try to make it come true," Dylan wrote. "They're ...
From Brill Building tunesmiths to punk poets, from Woody Guthrie to Max Martin, the visionaries who defined music history
12. [PDF] THE ROOTS OF ROCK AND ROLL - Kendall Hunt Publishing
Doo-Wop. In terms of record sales, doo-wop was the most popular black music style in the. 1950s. Its origins go back as far as the 1930s and the popularity of ...
13. Chuck Berry Invented Rock 'n' Roll — and Singer-Songwriters ... - Billboard
Mar 22, 2017 · Doo-wop and New Orleans were moving right along. Et cetera. But none of those musics would have been as rich or seminal without him. Related.
The American legend, who died March 18 at age 90, endured racism even as he seemed to transcend skin color and struggled to enjoy his genius even as he enshrined fun in pop music. And, oh yeah — he…
14. History of R&B Music - National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame
... most over-used rhythmic pattern in 1950s rock 'n' roll. On numerous recordings by ... doo-wop group, had the number four hit of the year with “Crying in the ...
History of R&B MusicNo other American music genre has had the universal appeal and global impact of rhythm and blues music. Despite its enormous influen ...
15. Race, rock, and the Rolling Stones: How the rock and roll became white.
Oct 6, 2016 · ... most successful black-owned business in the country. Or the ... sort of occult rendering of street-corner doo-wop. After eight more ...
This article is adapted from Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination.
16. [PDF] Instructor Manual for Stuessy & Lipscomb's Rock and roll: Its history ...
The Platters and The Coasters were among the most successful of the doo-wop groups ... most pervasive and commercially successful genres of popular music. Eileen ...
17. MOJO Time Machine: R&B Rules The Pop World
May 6, 2022 · One of the most prominent of the success stories involved Coral, a ... doo wop group The Moonglows. But while their group's version sold a ...
On 26 March 1955, Rhythm and Blues dominated the pop charts.
18. 6.2 The Evolution of Popular Music – Understanding Media and Culture
... doo-wop, and soul, the four mop-haired musicians from Liverpool, England ... Combining R&B, pop, gospel, and blues into a genre known as soul, vocalists such ...
The first stirrings of popular or pop music—any genre of music that appeals to a wide audience or subculture—began in the late 19th century, with discoveries by Thomas Edison and Emile Berliner. In 1877, Edison discovered that sound could be reproduced using a strip of tinfoil wrapped around a rotating metal cylinder. Edison’s phonograph provided ideas and inspiration for Berliner’s gramophone, which used flat discs to record sound. The flat discs were cheaper and easier to produce than were the cylinders they replaced, enabling the mass production of sound recordings. This would have a huge impact on the popular music industry, enabling members of the middle class to purchase technology that was previously available only to an elite few. Berliner founded the Berliner Gramophone Company to manufacture his discs, and he encouraged popular operatic singers such as Enrico Caruso and Dame Nellie Melba to record their music using his system. Opera singers were the stars of the 19th century, and their music generated most of the sheet music sales in the United States. Although the gramophone was an exciting new development, it would take 20 years for disc recordings to rival sheet music in commercial importance (Shepherd, 2003).
19. [PDF] the rhythm and blues (r&b) protest songs of the civil rights
Sep 9, 2016 · The Vocal Techniques of R&B Singers (Doo-Wop, Melismatic Singing, Riffs, Moans, and ... would discover that some of the most historic and ...
20. How Motown Broke Racial Barriers Like No Other Record Label
R&B and doo-wop were popular, but the pop audience was usually sold pale impersonations rather than the unadulterated Black originals. Before rock'n'roll ...
In the way its music was presented and the universal themes its artists sang of, Motown broke racial barriers to move everyone, no matter their skin colour.
FAQs
When was R&B most popular? ›
Rhythm and blues (R&B), which combines soulful singing and a strong backbeat, was the most popular music created by and for African Americans between the end of World War II (1941-45) and the early 1960s.
What genre did R&B come from? ›Early on the term "rhythm and blues" was used for boogie woogie, African American swing, jazz, and blues. All of these styles influenced the development of what is called rhythm and blues today.
How did R&B become popular? ›The Great Migration. The development of R&B is closely intertwined with the growth of twentieth-century African American urban communities in cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Memphis, and Detroit, which were geographical anchors for how these processes played out across the country.
What did R&B used to be called? ›THE HISTORY OF R&B
Soon, this new music started to spread across the nation and was known as “race music” – a term later changed to rhythm and blues, or R&B.
For many Millennials, the 90s was the best decade for R&B. There's a reason why that meme “If the love don't feel like 90s R&B, then I don't want it” stays in circulation.
What was R&B like in the 1950s? ›With its soulful sound, infectious rhythm, and heartfelt lyrics, R&B music captured the hearts of listeners and became a cultural phenomenon that still resonates today. From doo-wop to rhythm and blues, the 1950s were a pivotal era in the history of American music, and R&B was at the forefront of this movement.
What genre is R&B 1950s? ›Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music had contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used in a wider context. It referred to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music.
Who popularized R&B? ›The Rise of R&B
One of the genre's earliest practitioners, bandleader and saxophonist Louis Jordan — who also co-composed the 1944 hit song “Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby” — used elements that would come to define R&B. These included the shuffle rhythm, boogie-woogie bass lines, and short horn patterns or riffs.
R&B Music came into prominence in the late 1940s with Cab Calloway, The Harlem Hamfats, Count Basie, Louis Jordan and others. "The term Rhythm & Blues" (R&B) was first coined in 1948 by music journalist turned record producer Jerry Wexler.
Why is R&B not popular anymore? ›Another criticism of contemporary R&B is that it has become too homogenized, with many artists producing music that sounds similar to one another. Critics argue that this lack of diversity and originality has contributed to the genre's decline in popularity and cultural relevance.
Is R&B popular today? ›
Back in the 90s and up until the late 2000s, R&B artists were on top. Usher, carey, Whitney, TLC, R Kelly, Destiny's child, Jodeci etc. But nowadays R&B isn't as popular, specifically in white households.
Why is R&B so important? ›R&B is a diverse genre with roots in jazz, the blues, and gospel music. R&B helped spread African American culture and popularized racial integration on the airwaves and in white society during the 1960s.
What was the first R&B group? ›Pioneering R&B groups in the 1940s and 50s included The Cardinals, the Swallows, Dunbar Four / Hi Fi's, the Four Bars of Rhythm, the Five Blue Notes, the Melodaires, the Armstrong Four, the Clovers, and the Buddies / Capt-Tans. The musicians of these bands were mostly born before 1935 and came of age about 1947.
Who defined R&B? ›The term was coined by Jerry Wexler in 1947, when he was editing the charts at the trade journal Billboard and found that the record companies issuing Black popular music considered the chart names then in use (Harlem Hit Parade, Sepia, Race) to be demeaning.
How has R&B influenced American culture? ›R&B helped spread African American culture and popularized racial integration on the airwaves and in white society during the 1960s.
When was the golden age of R&B? ›There's no arguing that the 90s is the golden age of R&B. The best 90s R&B songs still sound fresh, and their influence can be felt in the crop of modern R&B stars who are pushing the genre forward.
When was the golden age of RNB? ›From genre-expanding innovations to chart-topping hits and iconic soundtracks, you can't talk about 90s music without talking about R&B! If the 80s is considered the golden era of hip-hop, then I feel like the 90s are the golden era of R&B.
Was R&B popular in the 70s? ›Throughout the '70s, R&B held its place on the charts with Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Jackson 5, The O-Jays, The Four Tops, Barry White, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Spinners, and more, while bending around other genres.
Was R&B popular in the 80s? ›The Culture Corner: R&B music in the '80s : World Cafe : World Cafe Words and Music Podcast : NPR. The Culture Corner: R&B music in the '80s : World Cafe : World Cafe Words and Music Podcast From Prince to Whitney Houston, the '80s was a pivotal decade for R&B music in the mainstream.