# Is There a Technical Term For These Sounds (Music)?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-technical-term-for-these-sounds-music/552322>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 1, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-technical-term-for-these-sounds-music/552322 "2010-09-01T23:12:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-technical-term-for-these-sounds-music/552322/1 "2010-09-01T23:12:02Z")

</div>

If you listen to 1950’s teen music, the singers of the era use a lot of weird vocal sounds…stuff like “doo-wop”, “shi boom-shi boom”, woo-ah…woo-ah", etc.  
Is there a musical term for this?  
Are these phrases added to make the lyrics rhyme, or do they have some unknown (to me) meaning?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-technical-term-for-these-sounds-music/552322/2 "2010-09-01T23:15:56Z")

</div>

[Scat.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scat_singing)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-technical-term-for-these-sounds-music/552322/3 "2010-09-02T01:16:55Z")

</div>

Backup scat. And at least [one song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4KN6TFhy2I) is actually named for the scat, not the words.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-technical-term-for-these-sounds-music/552322/4 "2010-09-02T02:45:14Z")

</div>

Yeah, there was a lot of scatological singing going on back then.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-technical-term-for-these-sounds-music/552322/5 "2010-09-02T03:08:23Z")

</div>

The genre, where early R&R was teamed with scat, is commonly known as ‘Doo Wop’.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-technical-term-for-these-sounds-music/552322/6 "2010-09-02T03:51:06Z")

</div>

I admire the OP’s curiosity and I try not to be judgmental, especially in matters of musical taste, but if I ever go to hell and have my own personal sound track, it will be all doo-wop. I other words, the more I can get by without thinking about that style of music, the happier I am. I don’t know why I hate it so much since I was never exposed to it except maybe on the oldies stations in the 80’s, and even there it was already circling the bowl.