Genesis are a Grammy Award-winning English rock band formed in 1967, and are among the top 30 highest-selling recording artists of all time with approximately 150 million albums sold worldwide, including 21.5 million albums sold in the United States. In 1988, the band won the Grammy Award for Best Concept Music Video. The longest-tenured members of Genesis are Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford, and Tony Banks. Peter Gabrieland Steve Hackett also played major roles in the band in its early days.

Genesis began as a 1960s pop band playing moody, simple keyboard-driven melodies. During the 1970s, they evolved into a progressive rock band, incorporating complex song structures and elaborate instrumentation, while their concerts became theatrical experiences with innovative stage design, pyrotechnics, elaborate costumes and onstage stories. This second phase was characterised by lengthy performances such as the 23 minute "Supper's Ready" and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, the 1974 concept album. In the 1980s, the band produced accessible pop music based on melodic hooks; this change of direction gave them their first number one album in the United Kingdom, Duke, and their only number one single in the United States, "Invisible Touch".

Genesis has changed personnel several times. Founding member Anthony Phillips left the band in 1970 due to stage fright. In 1975, Collins, then the band's drummer, replaced Gabriel as lead singer after a lengthy search for a replacement. To facilitate Collins's move to lead vocals during concerts, Bill Bruford, and later Chester Thompson, played drums for the band, with Collins joining in briefly during lengthy instrumental passages. After Phil Collins left the band in 1996, Genesis recruited Ray Wilson (formerly of Stiltskin), who appeared on the 1997 album Calling All Stations. As a result of the commercial failure of Calling All Stations, the band announced an indefinite hiatus. However, in 2007, Banks, Collins and Rutherford reunited for a 20-city tour of Europe and North America, which included a free concert at Rome's Circo Massimo in front of 500,000 fans.

As a group that influenced the growth of the progressive rock genre, Genesis has been cited by a number of progressive rock groups, including Marillion, and Dream Theater. Several Genesis tribute bands, including Re-Genesis and The Musical Box routinely perform material from the Peter Gabrieland Phil Collins eras.

Collins became the first artist to cover a Genesis song in a studio release—"Behind the Lines"—which he included on Face Value one year after the original's release. Other former members previously and subsequently performed the band's material live during their solo shows—Gabriel played "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" and "Back in NYC", while Hackett has performed "In That Quiet Earth", "Los Endos", "Horizons", "Firth of Fifth" and "Blood on the Rooftops", among others. Hackett has performed "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" on his own solo tours, and on a 1986 tour with his short lived supergroup GTR. Rutherford has performed "I Can't Dance" during his tours with the Mechanics. Collins also later formed The Phil Collins Big Band, which played jazz arrangements of Genesis songs, which were "That's All", "Invisible Touch", "Hold On My Heart" and "Los Endos" (renamed "The Los Endos Suite"), during its 1998 world tour. Ray Wilson has covered the most Genesis songs during his solo concerts. His two solo live albums, Live and Life and Acoustic, feature the Genesis songs "The Carpet Crawlers", "Follow You Follow Me", "I Can't Dance", "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", "No Son of Mine", "Shipwrecked", and "Mama". He has interpreted two songs from the solo careers of his two predecessors—"In the Air Tonight" (Collins) and "Biko" (Gabriel).

Jeff Buckley reworked "Back in NYC" for the posthumously released 1998 Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk. The Swedish death metal band In Flamescovered "Land of Confusion" on Trigger, as did Disturbedon their 2005 album Ten Thousand Fists. Disco-pop band Alcazar, also from Sweden, has covered parts of "Land of Confusion" on their song "This is the World We Live In". Dream Theater covered "Turn It On Again" as part of their song "The Big Medley". In 2007, Simon Collins recorded his own version of "Keep It Dark" as a tribute to the 40th anniversary of his father's band.

Beyond purely musical ventures, the theatrical style of Genesis's 1970s concerts with Gabriel and advanced lighting of their 1980s shows have provided inspiration for Cirque du Soleil's productions: the 2004 anniversary show Midnight Sun and the arena-based touring show Delirium trace their musical and multimedia elements back to these concerts. According to Victor Pilon, co-creator and co-director of both shows, "We're not inventing anything. Genesis did it years ago. We're just using new technology."