Space age pop or bachelor pad music is a subgenre of easy listening or lounge music associated with American and Mexican composers, songwriters, and bandleaders in the Space Age of the 1950s and 1960s.
[2][3][4] Irwin Chusid identifies the heyday of the genre as "roughly 1954 to 1963—from the dawn of high-fidelity (hi-fi) to the arrival of the Beatles.
"[5] Major artists in the genre include Juan García Esquivel, Les Baxter, Enoch Light, Henry Mancini, Dick Hyman, and Jean-Jacques Perrey.
[4][6] Among the major influences on space age pop were Impressionist composers such as Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, big band jazz, Hawaiian music, and contemporary Latin American styles such as samba, mambo, and calypso.
[2][6] Space age pop albums often have titles and covers related to science fiction, featuring rockets, outer space vistas, and mid-century modern design, or emphasizing its intended audience of affluent, stylish bachelors in cocktail bars and lounges.