Hi, Mitch:

One thing is to listen to music -- a lot of music, in lots of styles. When your ear becomes used to hearing a style, its sound becomes natural, so that when you start working on a piece in a particular style, you have a feel as to what that style should sound like.

Then simply sit and try to pick out those bass lines until you have a feel for them and until you have a repertoire of "licks".

You're right in that many styles are "bass"-ed around tonic/fifth intervals, simply because those are the tones which provide the most solid harmonic foundation. Sherry can tell you about bass lines.

In popular music styles, it all goes back to ragtime. I suggest you pull out some Scott Joplin or Charles Lamb and conquer the ragtime stride. Once you can hit a ragtime bass line on automatic at 200 BPM, then you can play just about anything else.