Music education has not always been oriented towards its actual recipients, the learners. Student orientation is rather the result of a decades-long didactic process. The development in music education is characterized by numerous conceptual innovations and reorientations. The struggle for the teaching factors of topic, person, and group is at the forefront of this process. The study highlights the profiles of pioneering music didactic concepts in terms of their relation to students. In summary, it describes significant development trends and influencing factors.