With the issuance and implementation of the new curriculum standards, China's "music education" has seen new innovations and reforms. The diversification of models, concretization of forms, and technicalization of methods have elevated music's development and inheritance to a new height. Amid the current research upsurge, which areas deserve continuous attention and further exploration? Among journal categories, academic journals guide academic research. All 12 major independent higher professional art colleges in China offer undergraduate music education programs, with 9 having master's programs in this field. Thus, based on CNKI, this study collates papers from these colleges over the past 5 years, extracting and analyzing literature related to "music education". It also collects feedback from involved colleges via questionnaires, interviews, etc. This study covers 82 articles, among which there are 8 articles from Music Art (Art of Music, Journal of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music), 7 articles from Journal of the Central Conservatory of Music, 16 articles from Symphony (Journal of Xi'an Conservatory of Music), 11 articles from New Voice of Yuefu (Journal of Shenyang Conservatory of Music), 3 articles from Journal of Tianjin Conservatory of Music, 6 articles from Chinese Music (Journal of China Conservatory of Music), 3 articles from Music Culture Studies (Journal of Zhejiang Conservatory of Music), 4 articles from Music Exploration (Journal of Sichuan Conservatory of Music), 6 articles from Journal of Xinghai Conservatory of Music, 4 articles from Huangzhong (Journal of Wuhan Conservatory of Music), 10 articles from Journal of Nanjing University of the Arts, and 4 articles from Art Exploration (Journal of Guangxi Arts University). In terms of quantity, most journals have a similar number of publications. Except for Symphony (Journal of Xi'an Conservatory of Music) which stands out, others publish about 1-2 papers yearly. Using Cite Space, This study conducts quantitative and qualitative analysis on the above literature. Finally, it concludes that the past 5 years' research hotspots in art colleges' "music education" field include aesthetic education, new liberal arts, solfeggio and ear training, vocal music teaching, traditional music, AI, core courses, diversification, teaching, and music education. Among them, "aesthetic education, AI, and diversification" provide richer content and value for recent and future music education development, worthy of in-depth discussion.