I have a question for whisky-experts

So, my friend and I want to drink whisky (or whiskey, what even is the difference?) and I have no idea about which one we should go with. I only tried whisky once and it was a very cheap one and tasted like absolute sh!t, and I had some people saying I should respect the whisky catalogue by drinking “good” ones…

I heard that Black Label and Monkey Shoulder are good for beginners, they are also around the same price here in Germany. From the looks, Monkey looks just fine to my eyes, where Black Label is elegant and still kind of masculine.

What do you think? How about the taste?