Crossover with jazz, film scores, numerous hit musicals. A common touch, a sensibility of the common people, that can be traced back to his childhood, when he would try out pianos for customers at a music store.

While such keywords might be effective in explaining the specificity, universality, and entertainment value of works like An American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue, they nonetheless leave something to be desired. The true appeal of Gershwin, and what sets him apart from previous composers, lies in the fact that he comprehensively incorporated the music he encountered and was captivated by in his youth—from jazz and blues to operetta—as compositional language from the outset, and then presented it through the filter of "America."

In this work too, the Parisian cityscape of the 1920s, as witnessed by Gershwin, is depicted with vibrant energy. Time whirls around an American. Crowds and back alleys, day and night; the urgent rhythm at the beginning conveys the hurried pace characteristic of a city, while the blaring horns heard throughout are taxi honks. The method of constructing the work's form by piecing together scenes from daily life, aligning them with the cycle of a day, is masterful.

This cannot be explained merely as a product of his improvisational ability or the repurposing of theatrical music techniques. Rather, it is the result of Gershwin's own assimilation of 20th-century French music, including works by Ravel, Debussy, and Les Six. Furthermore, it could be considered the outcome of his observations of the contemporary Second Viennese School and Neoclassicism. Although his orchestration is sometimes even called self-taught, the way he develops his ideas overlaps with that of his contemporary composers.

Though their encounter was coincidental, Gershwin spent several intimate years with Schoenberg in his later life, until he was suddenly struck by illness. Schoenberg dismissed the superficial reputation directed at Gershwin—such as "a classical composer infatuated with jazz" or "a white man speaking through (Black-created) jazz"—and, after Gershwin's death, positioned his music as truly original art music. For Schoenberg, who discovered the twelve-tone technique through relentless exploration, Gershwin's sensibility for grasping new sounds must have been close to envy.