Ever find yourself gently swaying in your booth at your favorite neighborhood coffee shop? One of these easygoing, acoustic-centered tunes may have been why.
Classic female blues singers from the 1920s through the '50s, from the lowdown dirty Beale Street blues to the sanctified gospel of the storefront churches.
As the '90s became the '00s, indie bands began doing the unthinkable: embracing and creating dance music. Here's some of the best indie dance from the past decade.
Also known as "white soul" or "pop soul," blue-eyed soul is a term that's commonly applied to white artists whose sound is influenced by classic soul and R&B.
Celebrate all the sounds of the sonidera: la guacharaca, super synthesizers, and popping bongos. These grooves, born in the marginalized neighborhoods of Mexico City, will coax you onto the dancefloor, ever so smoothly.
From World War II through the early '60s, The Golden Age of Big Band Jazz brought us some of the greatest interpreters of song, arguably ever. This velvet sound is the stuff of legend.
Cuba is the birthplace of Salsa, one of the most popular genres in Latin America. Cuban salsa draws from a combination of many Cuban genres, thus featuring an eclectic range of sounds.
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 party.
A nice, relaxed dinner party needs a nice, relaxed soundtrack. Enjoy the best female jazz singers from the '40s to today, singing standards and forgotten favorites. Pass the wine, please.
Take a trip from Haight on down to Sunset with these acoustic-centric songs by California artists from the late '60s and early '70s. Singer-songwriter, folk rock, country rock, soft rock. Lots of harmony, and plenty of mellow.
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.
Whether you're in love, excited for a big breakfast, or just happy to be alive, you woke up with a smile on your face and plan on keeping it. Let these feel-good songs from the '60s and '70s be your morning soundtrack.
This playlist takes you back to an idyllic '70s pool party where the bathing suits were as small as the sunglasses were big; Stealers Wheel was blasting out of the poolside AM and funky disco gems were spinning inside on the HiFi.
In the 1970s a new genre of music emerged from Nigeria called afrobeat. Created by the legendary bandleader Fela Kuti, afrobeat combined funk, jazz and psychedelic rock with West African highlife music and politically-charged lyrics.
The period when disco begat house music remains a deep well of inspiration for DJs and producers of dance music. Boogie to the best hip-shakers from new artists who draw from the sounds of New York and Chicago nightlife in the early-'80s.