I have eclectic tastes too. My father was my music inspiration also, he taught us to love all the classics from the forties to sixties.

I can play just about anything, but when I'm cooking I prefer music that keeps me moving at an up pace. Last time I made a huge meal, within the 2 hours I spent cooking and prepping I played, Queen rock music and a Spanish/Latin dance mix, and I topped it off with uptempo, semi-techno versions of Classical music! I love those mixes, critics be darned-who say don't mess with Bach and Beethoven originals. To me they are fun and quirky. One I recommend highly is Cafe Del Mar-delightful stuff.

I love Folk rock from the sixties/seventies, the Beatles, and doo-wop/R/B from the fifties/sixties, not to mention Elvis. And not to be discounted is some disco, though I can see how a lot of it was just 70's tripe. There are still some good ones in the muck.

If I'm in the mood to be mellow and want peace while I'm cooking I'll play some old time jazzy stuff like Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday,  Helen O'Connell, Nina Simone and the like. Those can really put you in a mood though, and then you wish you weren't just cooking for yourself or grubby family members. :P Those songs get you COOKING, as in, hey good looking, wanna try my cooking???

When I need to get things done fast, I can also throw on some big band swing, nothing like that to give you an industrialized production line feeling, heehee. (Thinks of those old Bugs Bunny cartoons)