In recent decades, Chinese music variety shows have developed rapidly and gained extensive social influence, becoming a major channel through which contemporary audiences engage with popular music. For music major students particularly, those specializing in popular vocal performance, these programs function not merely as entertainment but also as influential cultural texts that shape aesthetic preferences, performance ideals, and musical values. Drawing on perspectives from music education, vocal pedagogy, and contemporary popular music culture, this paper examines how Chinese music variety shows influence the aesthetic orientation of music major students. As a conceptual and analytical study, it argues that music variety shows can broaden students’ aesthetic horizons, stimulate learning motivation, and strengthen awareness of expression and stage communication. At the same time, the shows may contribute to aesthetic homogenization, the normalization of commercially driven standards of “good singing,” and a tendency to privilege immediate affect over long-term artistic development. The paper concludes by discussing implications for higher music education and proposing strategies for cultivating balanced, reflective, and critical aesthetic development among music students in media-saturated environments.