Editing Doo-wop (section)

===Musical precedents===
Doo-wop's style is a mixture of precedents in composition, orchestration, and vocals that figured in American popular music created by songwriters and vocal groups, both black and white, from the 1930s to the 1940s.{{Image frame|content=<score sound="1"> {
\relative c' { \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 2 = 120
   \clef treble
   \time 4/4
   \key c \major
   <c e g>1_\markup { \concat { \translate #'(-3.5 . 0) { "C:   I" \hspace #7 "vi" \hspace #6 "IV" \hspace #6 "V" \hspace #7 "I" } } }
   <a c e a> <f c' f a> <g b d g> <c e g> \bar "||"
} }
</score>|width=345|caption=A typical [[50s progression|doo-wop chord progression]] in C major<ref name="Goosman2013193">{{cite book|author=Stuart L. Goosman|title=Group Harmony: The Black Urban Roots of Rhythm and Blues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYoXAAAAQBAJ&pg=193|date=17 July 2013|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-0204-5|page=193}}</ref>}}

Such composers as [[Rodgers and Hart]] (in their 1934 song "[[Blue Moon (1934 song)|Blue Moon]]"), and [[Hoagy Carmichael]] and [[Frank Loesser]] (in their 1938 "[[Heart and Soul (1938 song)|Heart and Soul]]") used a [[I–vi–ii–V]]-loop [[chord progression]] in those [[hit song]]s; composers of doo-wop songs varied this slightly but significantly to the chord progression '''I–vi–IV–V''', so influential that it is sometimes referred to as the '[[50s progression]]. This characteristic harmonic layout was combined with the AABA chorus form typical for [[Tin Pan Alley]] songs.<ref name="Modleski1986">{{cite book|author=Bernard Gendron|editor=Tania Modleski|title=Studies in Entertainment: Critical Approaches to Mass Culture|url=https://archive.org/details/studiesinenterta00andw|url-access=registration|year=1986|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-253-35566-4|pages=24–25|chapter=2: Theodor Adorno Meets the Cadillacs}}</ref><ref name="AppenFrei-Hauenschild2015">Ralf von Appen, Markus Frei-Hauenschild (2015). [http://www.gfpm-samples.de/Samples13/appenfrei.pdf "AABA, Refrain, Chorus, Bridge, Prechorus — Song Forms and their Historical Development"]. In: ''Samples. Online Publikationen der Gesellschaft für Popularmusikforschung/German Society for Popular Music Studies e.V.'', Ed. by Ralf von Appen, [[André Doehring]] and [[Thomas Phleps]]. Vol. 13, p. 6.</ref>

Hit songs by black groups such as [[the Ink Spots]]<ref>{{cite web|author=The Ink Spots |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-ink-spots-mn0000082831 |title=The Ink Spots {{pipe}} Biography, Albums, Streaming Links |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=10 October 2019}}</ref> ("[[If I Didn't Care]]", one of the [[List of best-selling singles|best selling singles]] worldwide of all time,<ref name="Pitilli201618">{{cite book|author=Lawrence Pitilli|title=Doo-Wop Acappella: A Story of Street Corners, Echoes, and Three-Part Harmonies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kTO5DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA18|date=2 August 2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-1-4422-4430-6|page=18}}</ref> and "Address Unknown") and [[the Mills Brothers]] ("[[Paper Doll (The Mills Brothers song)|Paper Doll]]", "[[You Always Hurt the One You Love]]" and "Glow Worm")<ref>[[Joel Whitburn|Whitburn, Joel]], ''Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Records: 1940-1955'', Record Research, Menomanee, Wisconsin, 1973 p.37</ref> were generally slow songs in [[swing time]] with simple instrumentation. Doo-wop street singers generally performed without instrumentation, but made their musical style distinctive, whether using fast or slow [[tempo]]s, by keeping time with a swing-like [[On-beat and off-beat|off-beat]],<ref name="Cosby2016">{{cite book|author=James A. Cosby|title=Devil's Music, Holy Rollers and Hillbillies: How America Gave Birth to Rock and Roll|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gyzVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA190|date=19 May 2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-6229-9|pages=190–191|quote=When done in swing time, early doo-wop became a popular form of rock and roll, and it was often slowed down to provide dance hits throughout the 1950s, and the genre was personified by successful groups like the Coasters and the Drifters.}}</ref> while using the "doo-wop" syllables as a substitute for drums and a bass vocalist as a substitute for a bass instrument.<ref name="Goosman2013193" />

Doo-wop's characteristic vocal style was influenced by groups such as the Mills Brothers,<ref name="Shepherd2003">{{cite book|author=Gage Averill|editor=John Shepherd|title=Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: Volume II: Performance and Production|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pJvzEzjahkQC&pg=PA124|volume=11, Close Harmony Singing|date=8 July 2003|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-8264-6322-7|page=124}}</ref> whose close [[four-part harmony]] derived from the vocal harmonies of the earlier [[Barbershop music|barbershop quartet]].<ref name="Averill2003">{{cite book|author=Gage Averill|title=Four Parts, No Waiting: A Social History of American Barbershop Quartet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w2R2CAAAQBAJ&pg=PT167|date=20 February 2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-028347-6|page=167}}</ref>

[[The Four Knights]]' "Take Me Right Back to the Track" (1945), the [[Cats and the Fiddle]]'s song "I Miss You So" (1939),<ref name="Birnbaum2013">{{cite book|author=Larry Birnbaum|title=Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yJes-jdk5kEC&pg=PA168|year=2013|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8108-8638-4|page=168}}</ref> and the Triangle Quartette's even earlier record "Doodlin' Back" (1929) prefigured doo-wop's rhythm and blues sound long before doo-wop became popular.