Record-store Clerk: Vintage Bachelor Pad

Coined by visual artist Byron Werner in the 1980s, Space Age Bachelor Pad music encompasses the hi-fi aesthetic of the 1950s and early '60s. Beloved by even its most tongue-in-cheek fans, let this playlist soundtrack your next sexy party.

Pioneered in the late '50s, exotica is easy-listening lounge music that draws upon world music, but doesn't aim for authentic replication. Instead, exotica's purpose is lightweight entertainment that conjures images of foreign paradises.

From the sumptuous '50s through the swinging '60s to the funky, sexy '70s, European soundtrack composers were at the cutting edge of film music. Explore this sometimes campy, often beautiful musical world, where the music was often better than the movies.

The islands call with this mix of hip-swaying Hawaiian classics, contemporary singers, and tunes for ukelele or slack-key guitar for that luau state of mind.

Say bonjour to French pop from the 1960s, also known as "ye-ye." This sexy, cosmopolitan sound rose to popularity with the mod movement that swept Europe and landed on American shores.

Originating in the 1950s, bossa nova (Portugese for "new trend") combined harmonies and rhythms from American jazz with Brazilian samba. Now these songs have become standard jazz repertoire.

This playlist takes you back to a time when Sinatra was king, men wore suits, and everyone swilled martinis like the world was going to end in nuclear winter. Thankfully, it didn't, and the swingin' lounge music of the era lives on.

Beginning during World War II, bebop signaled the end of the big band swing era and the birth of modern jazz. Enjoy this introduction to the style, focusing on the post-war era when bebop was in its prime

Starting in the late 1940s, a new, more cerebral and mellower response to bebop became one of the dominant strains in jazz. Enjoy the birth, maturation and continuation of cool jazz, with an emphasis on ballads.

It's mambo time with the best of the Cuban big band era. Explore the music that inspired dancemania in Havana and around the world.

An offshoot of hard bop that flourished in the '60s and early '70s, soul jazz fed on the bluesy passion of R&B. Most associated with hard-driving organ trios and honking, bluesy horns, it's jazz with groove, grit and soul.

The barrio meets black power in the coolest vintage Latin soul and boogaloo tracks.

Make your next dinner party extra sophisticated with the lush sounds of CTI Records. From 1968 to the late '70s, producer Creed Taylor blended jazz, soul and Brazilian music into a sumptuous, engaging form of fusion.

The perfect combination of Afro-Cuban rhythms and American jazz, from the Havana jam sessions where the style was born to its international exodus.