Vocal harmony

Vocal harmonies have been an important part of Western art music since the Renaissance-era introduction of Mass melodies harmonized in sweet thirds and sixths.

In the Romantic era of music during the 1800s, vocal harmonization became more complex, and arrangers began including more dissonant harmonies.

In many rock and metal bands, the musicians doing backup vocals also play instruments, such as keyboards, rhythm guitar or drums.

In some pop and hip-hop groups and in musical theater, the backup singers may be required to perform elaborately choreographed dance routines while they sing through headset microphones.

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 US both in the 1950s to the early 1960s.