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

I had the great fortune to experience live The Beatles during their last US tour in '66.  I was hooked on music in general from my earliest youth though.
We had two garage bands during my HS days, of which I played bass and keyboard in the invasion cover group while the other band focused more on US beach music, Beach Boys, Ventures, etc.  Neither group were high quality (as most of us self taught were) but we all enjoyed ourselves immensely!  On the other hand, our front man, Dave Gordon, did turn professional and was highly regarded in the folk genre until his death from cancer in his early 30's.

So, yeah, I guess those were our "cliques", even-though we did think of it much that way back then.  No clique now though, just this group.  Oops!

OH...you kids and your Rock and Roll...
Now, TURN THAT DOWN....

Oh, oh, Zappa in Joe's garage practicing!

When I was a kid, I listened to the two AM stations that were popular in the Tulsa area during the early to late 60s: KAKC and KELI. (This was long before KMOD took over the FM airwaves.) Those stations were played all the time at our house, because my older sisters (a pre-teen and a teenager) listened to them constantly. (Several transistor radios with the single earpiece provided service over the years in our household.) That's where my tastes in music were primarily developed.

I didn't appreciate it until much later in my life, but those two AM stations played at least a small variety of popular music every day: British Invasion, garage bands (i.e. the kinds of bands you'll find on Nuggets compilations), Motown, some Stax r&b, doo wop, surf music, teen idols, girl groups, the occasional blues record, and even country folks like Merle Haggard and Freddie Hart. I can also remember when they played "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker and "Double Barrel" by Dave & Ansel Collins all the time. Those stations are probably why I like almost all kinds of music (except for bad music).

As for the British Invasion, most of my classmates fell into that Beatles vs Rolling Stones thing. I love the music of both bands (and I managed to catch the Stones live a few times), but I primarily ran with the Beatles crowd. Still do.

To name a few, Blues Magoos, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Eric Burton, Janis Joplin, Santana, Temptations, Carol King, James Taylor, Moody Blues, Simon & Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane, CCR.