Not to belittle your pain, but this isn’t an enormous problem. Really, awful taste in music pales when compared to fun co-worker issues like B.O., elevator-gagger perfume, and (my fave) the pen borrower who obsessively chewed on the “loaners” and would return them gnawed and dripping with drool.
Ain’t ever gonna make everyone happy. The attempt to do spawned the abomination called Easy Listening or elevator music. (Hmmm, there’s a trend here of yucky things in elevators.) Default music that bores and annoys everyone.
If listening for the telephone isn’t an issue, go with the earphones and your own choice of music, or earplugs. When I finally worked my way up to a private office (okay, closet) the greatest joy was silence, and/or classical music. Love music of most sorts, but classical is the only stuff I can listen to, enjoy and still concentrate.
Frankly, group/imposed music is noise pollution in my opinion, because music is so individual in taste. Is this something your employer could change without causing revolution? Earphones welcome, but room neutrality observed?
Veb