Foxtrot is the fourth studio album by English progressive rock band Genesis and the second from the band line-up which included Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, and Steve Hackett.

Foxtrot was also Genesis' first album to enter the UK Top 20, reaching No.12. Still, it failed to reach the US charts. Nor was it the first Genesis album to chart worldwide: Trespass had reached No.1 in Belgium in 1971, shortly followed by Nursery Cryme's No.5 placing in Italy. Foxtrot also reached No.8 in the Italian charts.

"Watcher of the Skies" and "Get 'Em Out by Friday" appeared on 1973's Genesis Live, while the 23-minute-long "Supper's Ready" was omitted due to space considerations. Live versions of "Supper's Ready" did appear on 1977's Seconds Out (with Phil Collins on vocals and Chester Thompson on drums), the 1998 box set Genesis Archive 1967-75, and the 2008 box set Genesis 1970–1975.

The title of the album may be a nod to the Mellotron Mark II used by Banks at the time, which included foxtrot as one of the preset rhythms in its tapeset. The 'fox on the rocks' is mentioned in the lyrics of the "Willow Farm" section of "Supper's Ready", and is featured in the album artwork. This figure in a red dress with a fox's head became one of Gabriel's earliest stage costumes.

The foxtrot is a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music, and the feeling is one of elegance and sophistication. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is 4/4 instead of ¾ time. Developed in the 1920's, the foxtrot reached its height of popularity in the 1930's, and remains practiced today.

The exact origin of the name of the dance is unclear, although one theory is that took its name from its popularizer, the vaudeville actor Harry Fox.

Two sources credit African American dancers as the source of the Fox Trot: Vernon Castle himself, and then dance teacher Betty Lee. Castle saw the dance, which "had been danced by negroes, to his personal knowledge, for fifteen years," at "a certain exclusive colored club".

The dance was premiered in 1914, quickly catching the eye of the husband and wife duo Vernon and Irene Castle, who lent the dance its signature grace and style.

An album may be understood as a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution, however the concept is found in printed music dating into the early nineteenth century in works by composers such as Schumann and Mendelssohn. The word derives from the Latin word for list.

Today, with the vinyl record no longer being used as the primary form of distribution, the term "album" can still be applied to any sound recording collection, such as those on compact disc, MiniDisc, Compact audio cassette, and digital or MP3 albums.Cover art is also considered an integral part of the album. Many albums also come with liner notes and inserts giving background information or analysis of the recording, reprinted lyrics, images of the performers, or additional artwork and text. These are now often found in the form of CD booklets.

Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album. If a pop or rock album contained tracks released separately as commercial singles, these were often traditionally placed in particular positions on the album. A common configuration was to have the album led off by the second and third singles, followed by a ballad. The first single would lead off side 2. In the past many singles (such as the Beatles' "Hey Jude" and Bob Dylan's "Positively 4th Street") did not appear on albums, but others (such as the Beatles' "Come Together" and Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone") were part of an album released concurrently. Today, many commercial albums of music tracks feature one or more singles, which are released separately to radio, TV or the Internet as a way of promoting the album. Albums have also been issued that are compilations of older tracks not originally released together, such as singles not originally found on albums, b-sides of singles, or unfinished "demo" recordings.