As a college professor, I face rooms of identically clad students who all watch the same sitcoms, have all seen that month's two or three mass-produced Hollywood films and all listen to the same six indistinguishable musical groups on the two local commercial radio stations.

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Those were the years when the most successful and highly publicized musical acts were groups such as Three Dog Night and Creedence Clearwater and Alice Cooper.

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Thank goodness it still has Psi Psy and those eye-catching girl and boy groups on the musical stage.

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Scruggs rose to prominence when Bill Monroe hired him to play in the Blue Grass Boys, one of the defining groups in the bluegrass musical genre.

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Such sentimental versions of the familiar story remind us that carolling, like the pub sing-along, has always been a way of bringing groups of ordinary people together around a musical accompaniment, to enjoy each other's company and celebrate a festive occasion.

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One, the Digital Youth Network, has for the past five years encouraged groups of about 60 middle school students to work on making musical instruments and videos as a means to improving literacy and numeracy.

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Mr. WANG: These groups were known collectively as combos nacionales, national groups, and through them a new kind of Panamanian sound emerged, mirroring musical styles as distinct and distant as New York boogaloo, Cuban descarga and Trinidadian calypso.

NPR: The Sounds of Panama's Mixed Musical Heritage

Groups of masqueraded dancers, actors, singers and instrumentalists delight crowds with theatrical and musical performances based on historical as well as current events.

UNESCO: Intangible Cultural Heritage