I have the same office chatter problem, but I'm not a fan of music either. I actually listen to brownian noise (like whitenoise, but less harsh) in my noise-cancelling headphones just loud enough to wash out the chatter. It's easy to google up a 1-minute seamless loop. I additionally got a old-schoo keyboard that clicks very loudly when I type (buckling springs)--mostly because I like the old-school feeling of typing, but also when the chatter gets to loud, you start typing away so as to say--I'm the one working here. I don't know what you're all doing chattering away. I also like the advice about going to your boss with a number of programmers to bring up the issue of the office chatter, and NOT wanting to listen to music (I don't). Also google up the articles that Joel Spolsky wrote on the topic of programmer productivity and office space.

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