Space Age Pop, aka bachelor pad music, was inspired by the optimism of the Space Age of the 1950s and 1960s and its excitement about mankind's space exploration. Space Age Pop is especially related to Lounge music, and could be seen as a precursor to the musical genre of space music.

The music varies in style, rhythm and arrangement, but shares enough similarities. Space Age Pop often uses a string orchestra (or simulated strings) to apply warmth and color to the sound, combined with a Latin percussion section. Keyboard instruments (both traditional ones, and later also electronic) are frequently used, as well as the theremin for its eerie out-of-this-world sound. The arrangements often convey a sense of humor, placing it in close relation to later futurist or space-themed novelty music - a closeness furthered by the album cover artwork often displaying space or modernist themes.

During the early 1990s, Space Age Pop, largely forgotten after 1965, regained some of its popularity.