Perhaps broody was the wrong word - it's like....a middle schooler's favorite dark cartoon character.

Yes thats true. However I always do say at least back then people had to learn and put time into music (even what we consider bad). There is a lot of great music now but the majority of the population wont hear it ever because they are brainwashed by Ai pop music. At least in ye olden day, good music that took talent was promoted (Boston, for example). The good news is now we have access to the old and the new music !

Generally your taste in musics sets in during your adolescent years.

What were you listening to, driving around late at night after the first one of your friends got their license?

That the type of music you're going to fall back on when you got nothing else to listen to.

And if you're in the metal scene, at least in the early to late 2000s... No part of rap/hip-hop/similar were allowed. No dance music. No pop music. It was the south, so there was some country mixed in that was allowed - old school Willy type shit, the outlaw legends at house parties. Everyone was trying to out-brvtal each other or some stupid shit though.

I got out of the scene because I left that social circle behind after starting a career, but kept a few close friends. They faded over time.

Working nightshift at a hospital does not bode well for your social life. You're at work when everyone else is in the pit drunk off their asses.

I worked alone so I listened to my old shit, and eventually got tired of it. Eminem dropped a surprise album, and I liked some of his stuff (like I also like trance stuff for concentration, like work) and started listening, and I'm a former percussionist so I started drumming along in the air, and realized.... man hip-hop drum grooves are chill, laidd back, flow, get people moving. Fuck yeah. Then I dove deeper. Ended up getting into some underground crap, and I'm still exploring going back to the 2000s stuff that was popular and I heard "around" in the world. I dig some of it too without the egotistical guitar soloists who just want to musically jerk off in front of everyone influencing everyone with their snobby bull shit. Yeah, snobby metal heads exist. Their title is probably "lead" something in the band.

Bad covers are frustrating, but I love a good cover where an artist is able to highlight what's different about their approach to music and also pay a bit of respect to a songwriter they like