The purpose of this study was to compare research trends in the ‘Korean Journal of Research in Music Education’ (KJRME) and the Journal of Research in Music Education’ (JRME), which are representative journals of music education in Korea and the US, respectively. Using text network analysis, keywords of both journals published from 2008 to 2017 were analyzed. The results were as follows. First, research studies in the KJRME focused on how the public education system in Korea actively aims to reflect revisions of the National Curriculum such as competency, convergence education, character education. Second, the JRME focused on studies regarding musical activities; in particular, this journal broadly covered not only musical performances but also fundamental musical abilities such as sight-singing, aural skill, and music perception. Finally, it was revealed that the use of traditional concepts in music education research has expanded over the last 10 years in both journals.