The "British Invasion". A question for you old farts out there.

Was in high school in the mid 60's.  Cliques...sure, but don't recall any of them being aligned with bands/singers.  Never jumped on the Beatles' bandwagon, nor the Stones' for that matter.  Never got jazzed over DC 5 either.  Only recording of theirs I ever liked was Catch Us If You Can.  The Who?  Nah.  As with some other contributors here, my British Invasion tastes ran more toward Manfred Mann (My Little Red Book), Kinks (Sunny Afternoon), Animals (I'm Crying), Yardbirds (Heart Full Of Soul), Troggs (With A Girl Like You), Hollies (Look Through Any Window) and yes...unapologetically...Herman's Hermits (No Milk Today).

Anybody want to watch "Pirate Radio" again?  

In SoCal in the 60s The Beach Boys gave The Beatles a run for their money, but the Beatles evolved.  I can remember going into a record store in Redondo Beach and all their top selling singles on the wall were Beatle records.   It was insane. No cliques, whole high school was in on the Beatles.

Not in the Bay area. It was War, Santana, James Brown, The Temptations, The 4 Tops, Sly Stone, Janis Joplin, Elvis, The Doors even Bob Dylan, but The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and even the Beach Boys took a back seat to the one's I just mentioned..

You were a little funky if you listened to The Who, to tell the truth..

Weird one Elton John came on like gang busters the late 60s in my little town.. (I think it was still the 60s).. I always thought it strange he was so popular in a Cool and the Gang, & Sly and the family Stones town..

Regard

Well, there is a difference between early/mid 60's, say '63 vs. '67. Brit invasion era really at it's end around 67. This is the beginning of the flower power/psychedelic era. Brit invasion music is a Top 40 convention, the two or three minute song thing. Many Brit invasion bands morphed into more complex/mature forms of rock, the ones who didn't mostly died by end of '67. FM free form stations took over the air waves around this time as well, AM Top 40 in beginning of death throes.

As sns says... Anyway, before the Beatles went on Ed Sullivan, I was strictly a classical guy, with occasional forays into show tunes thanks to the fact my mother and aunt danced and did bit parts in several 1940’s movie musicals. I hated rock-and-roll. Then the Beatles showed up and turned my taste upside down. As for the Dave Clark Five, they had their share of hype during the first moments of the British Invasion but in hindsight they come off as little more than a Swinging Sixties footnote.