Sentence:  The brooding, black-clad singer bridged a stark divide that emerged in the recording industry in the 1950s, as post-Elvis pop singers <WSD>diverged</WSD> into two camps and audiences aligned themselves with either the sideburned rebels of rock 'n' roll or the cowboy-hatted twangsters of country music. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To become different; to run apart; to separate; to tend into different directions.