Genesis is a progressive rock group that was formed in the late 1960's and enjoyed considerable success in the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's.

Anthony Phillips left the band in 1968 over disagreements about a change in the direction of Genesis' music, which would become evident with the release of Trespass. Peter Gabriel left the band in 1975. After considering various replacement lead singers, they settled on using their drummer, Phil Collins, thus changing from a 5-piece group to a 4-piece and yet again changing Genesis' musical direction.

When Steve Hackett left in 1977, Mike Rutherford took over his guitar duties, making the group a 3-piece (Collins, Banks, Rutherford). This remained the line-up until Collins left in 1996, to be replaced by Ray Wilson, who was not readily accepted by fans and remained for only a single album. The group still nominally exists with the long-standing Collins, Banks, Rutherford line-up, but is "resting" and has not produced any new music.

Genesis is one of the favorite bands of patrick bateman [person], protagonist of bret easton ellis' novel american psycho. One of the chapters of this book consist of a long review of genesis and it's music.