The purpose of the study was to examine the meaning of the 'core concept' of the current music curriculum, and the 'central idea' of the next music curriculum draft and suggest the direction of narrative in curriculum documents. To this end, this study examined ‘generalized knowledge’ and ‘the meaning of big ideas’, which are terms related to core concepts and central ideas, and discussed implications for future music and curriculum. This study emphasizes that ‘core concepts’ and ‘big ideas’ mean the essence of the subject that students will ultimately understand. The big ideas of the Canadian BC curriculum and the central idea of IB PYP curriculum were reviewed, and the direction of description of Korea's future music curriculum was also discussed with the derived implications. Based on these explorations and suggestions, it is expected that the educational goals of the curriculum will be well understood and applied in the field.