Environmentalism has been a theme and cultural trend in popular music. Ecomusicologists (musicologists and ethnomusicologists focusing on music and environmental issues) and music educators are increasingly emphasizing the intersections of music and nature, and the role of music in ecological activism.

Environmental themes in music have ranged from an appreciation of nature and wilderness and advocating for its protection, to environmental degradation, pollution and climate change. The earliest popular music exploring environmentalist topics can be traced back to the 19th century and early folk, gospel and blues music. The counterculture of the 1960s facilitated an increase in environmental music that continued into subsequent decades. Genres that have addressed the topic include hip hop, punk rock, heavy metal and modern classical.

Some musical artists have used their platform to promote and raise money for environmental causes. Efforts have also been made to improve the sustainability of the music industry and live music.

Some of the earliest songs to cover environmental topics originate from the 19th century, with one example being "Woodman! Spare that Tree!" by George Pope Morris and Henry Russell. Folk music explored environmental topics throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

Icelandic music has had a long tradition of prominently featuring nature since the country's independence in 1944.

After a radioactive isotope (Strontium-90) was found in cows milk in 1959, the concern for the environmental effects of the nuclear arms race increased. This sparked songs about the invisibility of environmental effects like radioactive isotopes. In his song "Mack the Bomb", Pete Seeger wrote a comparison between a shark and Strontium-90, explaining that the threat of a shark is at least visible, unlike radioactive isotopes. In 1962, Malvina Reynolds also wrote a song called "What Have They Done to the Rain?", which was inspired by above-ground nuclear testing, and how it was putting Strontium-90 into the air, then into soil through rain, which is how it got into cows and their milk. Songwriter Peter La Farge released As Long as the Grass Shall Grow in 1963, a collection of native American songs discussing environmental destruction.

Pete Seeger released what is considered the first environmentalist album, entitled "God Bless the Grass" in 1966. The 1960s produced a large number of environmental-focused songs, primarily due to the popularization of folk music and the musicians that penned many environmental protest songs, in that genre.

In the 1960s and 1970s, popular music was influenced by the counterculture movement, anti-Vietnam war movement and the civil rights movement. The inaugural Earth Day and founding of Greenpeace, the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill and passing of the National Environmental Policy Act were influential on music in the early 1970s. "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell referenced DDT following Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring, which had brought the dangers of DDT to popular attention. John Denver, a country and folk singer often sang about the wilderness of Colorado with popular songs such as "Rocky Mountain High" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads". The Beach Boys also explored environmental concerns, particularly pollution, in Surf's Up (1971) songs "Don't Go Near the Water" and "A Day in the Life of a Tree".