A protest song is a song that is associated with a movement for protest and social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs (or songs connected to current events). It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre.
Among social movements that have an associated body of songs are the abolition movement, prohibition, women's suffrage, the labour movement, the human rights movement, civil rights, the Native American rights movement, the Jewish rights movement, disability rights, the anti-war movement and 1960s counterculture, art repatriation, opposition against blood diamonds, abortion rights, the feminist movement, the sexual revolution, the LGBT rights movement, masculism, animal rights movement, vegetarianism and veganism, gun rights, legalization of marijuana and environmentalism.