Foxtrot

Foxtrot is the standard slow-to-medium dance tempo of the American and British dance orchestra, named after the ballroom dance popularised by *Harry Fox* and *Vernon and Irene Castle* in 1914. Played in 4/4 with a smooth, gliding two-step feel, it became the default setting for popular song between the wars: dance bands, hotel orchestras and radio remotes rendered standards, show tunes and novelty numbers as foxtrots, and the tempo later split into the ballroom slow foxtrot and the faster quickstep. Its recorded legacy is the dance-band catalogue itself, from *Paul Whiteman* and *Jean Goldkette* to the swing orchestras.