"Horses for courses" comes to mind.

Although Scouts and Guides have been doing it for yonks I suspect a quite different cohort picked up the habit (in Oz) at Rocky Horror Show performances and, later on, at screenings of the film Blues Brothers. In both of these [regularly repeated] venues there was a lot of what must be called 'chorus' activity which was quite inventive and I suspect some of the frequently-repeated items in the folk scene just begged for similar treatment. When I first visited the Top End Folk Club 20-odd years ago I was surprised to see the songs that attracted this group activity as I'd not seen any similar treatments 'down south' at all. Unless you count Judy Small's Auslan translator; those performances of active singing were definitely well received.

Cheers, Rowan