Hello, all.
Retired guy here. Been playing guitar since elementary school and writing songs since about that time (though it would be several years before I wrote a decent one).
Grew up listening mostly to rock and blues, with some country thrown in. (I graduated high school in Nashville and liked some of what I heard there a lot.)
Later worked the graveyard shift and listened to a jazz show overnight. That's where I learned about the Great American Songbook and became a fan of Sinatra, Ella, Lady Day, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and so on.
Nowadays I don't listen to radio much at all. No knock on today's music, I just spend a lot of time playing guitar and coming up with stuff---after hours of that, I don't listen to music to relax.
I think some of my songs are good, but what's my biased opinion worth? Bupkis.
But I do expect to keep writing for as long as I live.