This project
This website is dedicated to an ongoing exploration of the music of Genesis. It focuses on songs, albums and performances, but also on context: musical influences, cultural surroundings, visual imagery and reception.
Rather than presenting a fixed narrative or ranking, the project approaches Genesis as a body of work that developed over time, marked by continuity as much as by change. Individual songs often serve as points of entry, opening up wider questions about composition, sound, identity and audience.
The site is intentionally selective and reflective. It is not designed as a comprehensive archive, but as a space for close listening and careful reading.
About the author
Philipp Röttgers is a writer and musician. His work often moves between music, cultural history and close textual or musical analysis. He approaches popular music not primarily as nostalgia, but as a form of cultural expression shaped by its time and capable of revealing more than it seems at first glance.
His interest in Genesis lies in the band’s long artistic development and in the tensions between experimentation, accessibility and reception that run through their work. Writing about Genesis, for him, means listening closely and resisting simplified narratives.
More about philipp röttgers
Phil’s website LONDON BEYOND TIME AND PLACE.
Phil is CEO of the literary agency OPERA SCRIPTORIUM.
Genesis: Song by Song
This website also forms part of the research and writing surrounding Genesis: Song by Song, published by Fonthill Media in February 2026.
The book examines the band’s catalogue one song at a time, but always in context — musical, historical and cultural. It does not aim to resolve debates about “eras” or line-ups, but to explore how individual songs function within a larger artistic trajectory.
Further information about the book will be shared here in due course.