I've been playing the piano for about 2 years. While watching TV today, I was able to name the classical music being played in a few commercials! My high school music appreciation teacher would be proud!

As of late, my focus hones in whenever I hear piano arrangements come on in the backdrop of commercials or I hear piano accompaniments to songs - with the latter I generally can't figure out quite what they're doing, but I certainly enjoy trying!

While a big proponent of Free Market Capitalism I've never really been happy with the use of Classical (or Popular) music in commercials - there are many irritating examples of this but United Airlines' on-again, off-again use of Gershwin's classic piano/orchestral work "Rhapsody in Blue" is a particularly galling case in point...

My general contention is that prosperous companies should pay struggling composers to come up with original music for their ads (as some do) - it's the principal of the thing...