George Gershwin And His Attempts To Define An American Sound

Over the course of his career, Gershwin was praised and criticized inequal measure for his willingness to borrow and fuse musical elementsfrom various cultural and ethnic realms. He regularly tapped into theaesthetic values and popular tastes of his surroundings, in an attemptto compose works that would connect with as broad a public as possible.This approach to composition produced mixed results.  – Times Literary Supplement