The type of music I think would depend on your guests and what they like. If you are having a party and have the room to dance, you’ll want some peppy dance tunes as well as some slower songs.
You might ask each one of your guests to bring their favorite cd along, put them in the order the guests arrived and play them in order. You are bound to get some differences in music here but this will keep everyone happy.
Karoke is always fun at a party and gets your guests interacting with each other and’hamming’ it up. If you don’t have a machine you could either borrow one, rent one or buy one. They really aren’t that expensive and you can have a lot of fun with them.
If people get tired of dancing turn the music way down and talk or play games and of course while eating you want the volume lower.
You know your guests well or you wouldn’t be inviting them so go with what they like as it probably is similar to what you like.
You can even play name that tune and have little gifts for high scorers. To me part of a party is the music and dancing, in fact a major part. Eating is just a side effort.
But then a party can mean different things to different people and there may be times you want no music at all. Consider the occasion when choosing music or not to have music and the mood and tastes of your guests and everyone will have a good time.