Over the last few months I've been playing around with Pandora, the online music server that uses a record of what you like and don't like to recommend new music, using what it calls a "musical genomics" approach. My experience has been mixed; I don't love everything Pandora recommends based on my established tastes.
Recently, I heard about an interesting experiment carried out by some undergraduates working in a research lab over the summer. Pandora is designed to work with an individual, but it can also be used in groups. Just two people (with quite different musical tastes) were working in the lab for much of the summer, and Pandora did a pretty good job (using input from both of them) finding music they both liked, or at least could live with. Pandora succeeded at finding music at the intersection of their tastes.
When, late in the summer, a third worker joined the lab and began to participate in the Pandora experiment, things got a bit more...unpredictable.
Anyway, it seems like a worthwhile experiment, a way of passing a little time and keeping your spirits up during those long, late-summer days in the lab when it's nice outside. Try Pandora (which, by the way, I have no connection with other than as an occasional user). Take turns giving the thumbs up or thumbs down to the selections it proposes. See if it can help you find common ground, music that the metal-head, the hip-hop fan, and the Chopin aficionado can all live with--or whether you end up with music you all hate.
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