there are so many random moments and coincidences that make me realize there are alternate universes where i could've stumbled into tracker music like years and years earlier than i did. one particularly dated example just happened!
last night i was talking about "music i found on newgrounds in 2004" and one song that i mentioned was recognized by someone else - evidently it was an .xm module by Elwood from 1997 "SHADOW.XM", and the module was shared with me! (i have no idea if the person who uploaded it to NG was plagiarizing or just reuploading to share... it had the correct title, "Into the shadow". it isn't up there anymore although i found that person's account with most of their other music intact.)
anyway i listened to that song probably 100 times when i was 13 and it's sooo crazy to come full circle and see its inner workings almost two decades later... and to find out it's a tracker module lol. i had no idea i was listening to tracker music back then, but if i had dug just a little bit harder at the time i bet i would've started scratching the surface of this realm like WAAAAAY earlier. (years before ubiktune which also should have prompted me to dive in but i didn't then, either!)
also the song still whips, just saying:
