Patriotic music has long served as a medium for cultivating civic identity, transmitting cultural memory, and unifying diverse societies under shared symbolic narratives. Yet debates persist over whether its inclusion in education fosters democratic citizenship or reinforces exclusionary nationalism (Hebert & Kertz-Welzel, 2012; Carretero, 2011). This article critically examines how patriotic music pedagogy shapes youth civic engagement by analyzing its role in cultural memory transmission, identity formation, and civic participation. Through a comparative lens—including cases from France, the United States, China, and Nordic countries—we highlight how teaching practices range from ritualized indoctrination to reflective, pluralistic engagement (Abril, 2007; Karlsen, 2013; Ho & Law, 2020). To reframe this contested practice, we propose an integrative theoretical framework combining Cultural Memory Theory (Assmann, 2011) and Critical Pedagogy (Freire, 1970; Hess, 2017). This approach positions patriotic music not as a fixed cultural artefact but as a dialogic and participatory space where students can critically interrogate historical narratives, negotiate identity, and enact civic agency (Allsup, 2011; Abrahams, 2005). By synthesizing existing scholarships, we identify persistent challenges—such as the risk of ideological indoctrination, exclusion of minority voices, and limited evidence on long-term civic outcomes (Campbell, 2019; de Villiers, 2021)—and call for future research on student agency, digital culture, and longitudinal impacts. Our findings suggest that when approached critically and inclusively, patriotic music can serve not merely as a ritual of compliance but as a transformative medium for fostering reflective, empathetic, and justice-oriented citizenship.