LAWS 2908 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Surf Music, Reverberation, Alternate Picking
11 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
Doo wop was a distinctive part of the sound style of the period. Doo wop is often thought of as a rock and roll style; however, that changed a little bit in the 90s. The first doo wop revival (late 1950-early 60s), was marketed as rock and roll. Musical characteristics: doo wop is a very distinctive group vocal sound. Using the voice to imitate instruments is a very standard doo wop style. Acapella lies in the origins of doo wop. Doo wop wasn"t really a performance style, it was more used to just hang out together. Stratification of the voices into distinct roles: lead voice (usually very high), medium-pitch voices often doing either riffs or pads and a deep bass voice which sometimes sang bass lines and sometimes did solos. There are also hierarchies of personas in the band. Pads are the unimportant part, like a vocal fill. In most respects, the girl groups were simply female doo-wop groups.
