This article provides an analysis of the session content presented in the first fifty years (1946-1996) of the (Michigan) state music education conference," The Midwestern Conference on School Vocal and Instrumental Music." The purpose of this study was to examine instructional techniques, technology, social/societal, and multicultural trends over the 50 years and to discuss those trends in the context of social and cultural developments of the time. Findings suggest that the largest single category of sessions across the fifty-year period was instructional techniques, followed by social/societal topics, technology, and multicultural topics. Technology and social/societal topics emerged greatly throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as did multicultural topics in the 1990s. Sessions on instructional techniques were prevalent throughout, but declined steeply from 1985-1996.