Doo Wop is a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music, which developed in African-American communities in the 1940s and which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. An African-American vocal style known as doo wop emerged from the streets of northeastern and industrial midwest cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. With its smooth, consonant vocal harmonies, doo wop was one of the most mainstream, pop oriented R&B styles of the 1950s and 1960s. After the mid to late 1960s dominance of Motown and the British Invasion of the American R&B and Pop music mainstream, Doo Wop was not able to rebound to its previous level of popularity. By the 1980s, Doo Wop continued on in a limited range mainly via Pop and Rock artists who would include a few or some Doo Wop songs on their albums. The Doo Wop influence can heard on 1990s and 2000s male R&B and some pop vocal groups because of their strong enphisis on vocal harmonizing.
Such popular groups that define "streetcorner doo wop" includes: The Elegants, The Dubs, The Jive Five, The Earls, Dion and the Belmonts, The Mystics, Randy and the Rainbows, The Doo Wop All Stars, The Jesters, The Nutmegs, The Velours........
Other popular groups that are considered "pop doo wop", with a heavy crossover appeal includes: The Platters, The Skyliners, Little Anthony and the Imperials, The Duprees....... .
