Doo-wop is a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music popular in the mid-1950s to the early 1960s in the

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Doo-wop is a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music popular in the mid-1950s to the early 1960s in the United States.

The term "doo-wop" was clearly taken from the nonsense syllables sung in harmony in doo-wop songs. There are two songs in particular which 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 Nite (I Remember)" 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 1960s. However, Gossert himself has said that "doo-wop(p) was already being used [before me] to categorize the music in California.". It became the fashion in the 1990s to keep expanding the definition backward to take in Rhythm & Blues groups from the mid-1960s and then further back to include groups from the early 1960s and even the 1940s. There is no consensus as to what constitutes a doo-wop song and many aficionados of R&B music dislike the term intensely, preferring to use the term "group vocal harmony" instead.

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